[2] After completing his formal training he joined the laboratory of Douglas R. Green at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital where he held the John H. Sununu Endowed Fellowship[3] in immunology.

[7] Heckmann and Green showed that a protein known as LC3 which helps facilitate vesicle trafficking and fusion, most well known for its role in autophagy, was attached to endosomes that contained β-amyloid,[7] a known contributor to Alzheimer's Disease establishment and pathology in humans.

[11][12][13][9][10][8] The potential for therapeutically targeting LC3-associated endocytosis for the treatment of devastating conditions including Alzheimer's Disease and cancer is of significant promise.

[8] Additional evidence supporting a significant role for LANDO and other non-canonical uses of the autophagy machinery in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation were recently published by Drs.

Heckmann and Green along with other colleagues including Thomas Wileman demonstrating an important role for LANDO and targeting of neuroinflammation as a therapeutic approach to relieving neuronal and behavioral impairment in a novel, age-associated spontaneous model of Alzheimer's Disease in mice, work that has been published in Science Advances.