Marwan Sabbagh, M.D., board-certified geriatric neurologist, hopes to work himself out of a job. As founder and director of clinical research at Sun Health Research Institute’s Cleo Roberts Center for Clinical Research, Dr. Sabbagh had dedicated his entire career to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

“Researchers are fighting the clock as they search for answers to what causes – and what might cure – Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis and other age-related disorders,” Dr. Sabbagh explains. “We want to halt these diseases in their tracks and make sure no one else has to suffer from them in the future.”

Dr. Sabbagh is a leading investigator for several prominent national Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment trials, including Alzheimer vaccine studies. He has authored and co-authored more than 70 medical and scientific articles on Alzheimer’s research, and this year published his first book, The Alzheimer’s Answer.

“The question I hear most in my clinical practice is, ‘What can I do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease?’” Dr. Sabbagh says. “I believe there are identifiable, modifiable risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s. I wrote this book to provide recommendations for people to take real steps toward prevention.”

In addition to his clinical work and private practice in Sun City, Dr. Sabbagh is associate director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center, a clinical instructor in the Sun Health/St. Joseph’s Geriatric Fellowship Program, and a visiting scientist in the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale. He also is an adjunct professor at Midwestern University and Arizona State University.

Dr. Sabbagh earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley and his medical degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he grew up and his retired parents still reside. He served his residency in neurology at Baylor College of medicine and a completed his fellowship in geriatric neurology and dementia at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Dr. Sabbagh’s loves to travel with his wife Ida, a board-certified family physician in Scottsdale and their two sons, Habib and Elias. Dr. Sabbagh enjoys cycling, karate and watching his beloved Cal Golden Bears compete in Pac-10 Football.