He is the director of Penn Neurodegeneration Genomics Center as well as a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Gerard Schellenberg received his bachelor's degree in Cell Biology with a minor in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside in 1973.
Schellenberg remained at the University of Washington as a faculty member in the departments of neurology, gerontology and geriatric medicine, and pharmacology.
[2] While at Washington, he was the senior author of a Science article locating the gene and mutations responsible for Werner syndrome, a form of progeria.
His neurodegenerative disease research contributed to identification of genes implicated in Alzheimer's disease, including the presenilin 1 and presenilin 2 genes linked to early-onset AD,[3][4] the RecQ helicase gene (WRN) which causes Werner's Syndrome,[5][6] the MAPT mutations which cause FTLD-tau type,[7] and subsequently the MAPT association with Guam amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Parkinson dementia complex[8] and Alzheimer's Disease.