Dr. Alkon received his undergraduate degree in chemistry in1965 at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his M.D. at CornellUniversity and finishing an internship in medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital inNew York, he joined the staff of the National Institutes of Health where,during his 30-year career, he became a Medical Director in the U.S. PublicHealth Service at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke(NINDS) and Chief of the Laboratory of Adaptive Systems. In 1999, Dr. Alkonbecame the founding Scientific Director of the Blanchette RockefellerNeurosciences Institute and occupied the Toyota Chair inNeuroscience at the Institute.  

Subsequently, he became President and Chief Scientific Officer ofSynaptogenix, Inc.  Inthese positions, he and his teams conducted multidisciplinary research on themolecular and biophysical mechanisms of memory and memory dysfunction inpsychiatric and neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer's disease. Hewas alsoResearch Professor in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, and aProfessor of Neurology at West Virginia University until September 2016.

In 2016, Dr. Alkon joined NeuroDiagnostics, Inc., now doingbusiness as Synaps Dx, as its Chief Scientific Advisor. In this role, he hasprovided the scientific leadership and strategic guidance behind thedevelopment of the DISCERN™ test, helping translate decades of Alzheimer'sdisease research into a clinically available diagnostic technology.

As an internationally recognized pioneer in research onbrain-based neural networks and the molecular basis of memory, he has authoredhundreds of scientific articles as well as several books, including MemoryTraces in the Brain (Cambridge University Press) and the popular book Memory'sVoice (HarperCollins).