Dr. Eric Reiman receives Arizona’s highest bioscience honor

AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement recognizes groundbreaking contributions in fight against Alzheimer’s

 

PHOENIX (Oct. 20, 2025) – Eric M. Reiman, MD, an internationally renowned Alzheimer’s researcher and chief executive officer of Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, has earned AZBio Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement, the state’s highest bioscience honor. The award is extended to an Arizonan whose body of work has made life better for people at home and around the world.

Dr. Reiman, who was presented the honor on Oct. 15, is a pioneer in the scientific and clinical fight against Alzheimer’s disease, biomarker, genetic, and neuroscientific research, and the development of new models of collaboration and resource sharing. He leads the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix and Tucson and Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City. He is also director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, a leading example of statewide collaboration in biomedical research.

Arizona Governor Kate Hobbs presents the AZBio Pioneer Award to Dr. Eric Reiman. Also pictured, Joan Koerber-Walker of AZBio. (Image by Mark Goldstein)

“During his career, Dr. Reiman and his colleagues demonstrated the ability to detect Alzheimer’s brain changes before the onset of symptoms, launched a new era in Alzheimer’s prevention research, and gave the field a realistic chance to find the first effective prevention therapies in the next one to two years,” said Joan Koerber-Walker, president and CEO of the Arizona Bioindustry Association. “They continue to transform the evaluation and care of cognitively impaired patients and family caregivers, fulfill the promise of emerging Alzheimer’s blood tests, and provide a foundation for the fight against other age-related brain diseases.”

“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition on behalf of my fantastic colleagues and collaborators,” said Dr. Reiman. “I’m indebted to our heroic research participants, our valued patients and family caregivers, and our incredible supporters for giving us a chance to fulfill our lifetime goals.”

Dr. Reiman received his research training in the lab that invented PET and galvanized brain mapping research at Washington University in St. Louis. After moving to Arizona in 1988, he and his colleagues established a leading brain imaging research program at the then-Samaritan Health System, which later became Banner Health, and established close collaborations with leading researchers throughout the state. In paradigm-changing studies, they characterized brain regions involved in human memory, emotion, appetite regulation and pain.

During that time, Dr. Reiman and his colleagues introduced the idea of detecting and tracking Alzheimer’s disease long before the onset of symptoms in people at increased risk, as well as using this approach to speed up the evaluation and FDA approval of promising prevention therapies. In 1996, their landmark New England Journal of Medicine article demonstrated the ability to detect characteristic brain changes in healthy middle-aged people at increased genetic risk. Soon after, he and his colleagues established the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, a leading example of statewide collaboration in biomedical research and a destination center in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

In late 2006, he and his colleagues established Banner Alzheimer’s Institute to find and support approval of the first effective Alzheimer’s prevention therapy within 20 years, establish a standard of care that better addresses the medical and nonmedical needs of cognitively impaired patients and their families, and forge new models of collaboration in biomedical research. In 2012, their Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative (API) received NIH, industry and philanthropic support for the very first prevention trial of an investigational drug therapy in healthy people who are at increased risk for the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease (based on their genetic background or biomarker findings). The collaborative prevention trial, which was conducted in Colombian members of the world’s largest autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease kindred — including 1,200 people who carry a genetic mutation that makes that destined to develop Alzheimer’s at an early age — was named one of the “World Changing Ideas” by Scientific American. 

Other examples of Dr. Reiman’s scientific impact include his work with the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium; the Alzheimer’s Disease Genetic Consortium, which has identified more than 80 Alzheimer’s susceptibility genes; and API’s Colombia collaboration and public-private partnerships. He and his collaborators have also made pioneering contributions to the development of blood tests that have started to transform Alzheimer’s research and care.

In addition to his other roles, Dr. Reiman is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, university professor of neuroscience at Arizona State University, a TGen Senior Scientist, and board chair of the Flinn Foundation. Working closely with Jerre Stead, he and his colleagues co-founded a company called AlzPath to help fulfill the promise of blood tests in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Its pTau217 antibody was named one of TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions” and licensed to several diagnostics companies for their Alzheimer’s blood tests. He is an author of more than 800 publications, inventor of several patents, leader of numerous NIH grants, and recipient of the Potamkin Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in Alzheimer’s research.

Dr. Reiman received his undergraduate and medical education at Duke University and his residency training in psychiatry at Duke and Washington University in St. Louis. Soon after beginning his research career in St. Louis, he and his colleagues introduced the idea of aligning and averaging brain images from different people to reveal subtle biological changes and identify regions linked to normal and abnormal behavior, a paradigm that has helped to revolutionize brain mapping research.

Arizona’s life science community gathered for the AZBio Awards to honor Dr. Reiman and other Arizona life science leaders on Oct. 15 at the Phoenix Convention Center. To learn more, visit the AZBio Awards website.

About Banner Alzheimer’s Institute

Since its inception in 2006, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute has sought to find effective Alzheimer’s disease prevention therapies without losing another generation, establish a new model of dementia care for patients and family caregivers, and forge new models of collaboration in biomedical research. It has made groundbreaking contributions to the unusually early detection, tracking, diagnosis and study of Alzheimer’s, and aims to find an effective prevention therapy by the end of 2026. It includes the pioneering Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative, an extensive profile of research studies and clinical trials, comprehensive clinical, family and community service programs, a leading brain imaging research program, and strategic partnerships with public and private research organizations around the world. Learn more at www.BannerHealth.com/Alzheimers.

About AZBio

Arizona is home to one of the fastest growing life science industries in the U.S.  Our community of biotech, medtech, and healthcare leaders are working together to make Arizona a Top Ten Life Science State. As the statewide advocate and industry association for Arizona’s bioscience industry, AZBio provides the connections, resources, and leadership needed to keep the industry growing at an ever-increasing rate. Learn more at www.AZBio.org