Miranda Orr, PhD, associate professor of Neurology, is co-director of the Tracy Family Stable Isotope Labeling Quantitation (SILQ) Center. Orr came to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was an associate professor in the Section of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. She earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Montana State University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio, where she eventually joined the faculty ranks. She has also held federal government appointments as research health scientist at South Texas Veterans Health Care System and Salisbury Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Orr’s drive to study neurodegenerative diseases comes in part from losing her grandmother to Alzheimer’s as Orr was graduating from college. Since then, she has built a remarkable career in understanding mechanisms that link biological aging with neurodegeneration and developing therapeutic approaches for cellular senescence. The Orr lab uses mouse models, spatial proteogenomics and tissue mapping to examine the ways in which cellular stress response leads to a range of tauopathies. Her many publications have made valuable contributions to the field, spanning topics from imaging and bioinformatics to post-mitotic cellular senescence and senolytics.
Specifically tied to her translational focus, Orr led a multinational Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the effects of senescent cell clearance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s disease. In recognition of her work, she was honored as the 2022 recipient of the Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Drug Development. The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation awards the Goodes Prize to recognize researchers who have made a significant impact in the field through their innovation and dedication.
Orr’s work is built on a strong history of collaboration with colleagues across institutions, developing new projects on brain aging and neurodegeneration and assisting in projects involving spatial biology and tissue mapping.
Outside of her professional duties, she enjoys outdoor activities, painting and playing the piano.