Keenan A. Walker, Ph.D., directs the Multimodal Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease unit in the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging.

[1] While there, he authored an analysis of data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, investigating the relationship between inflammation and cognitive decline,[5][6] as well as a study on predicting Alzheimer's disease in advance based on blood protein levels.

[3] After moving to the NIA, Walker led a study on how Alzheimer's disease affects Black people, with results that suggest a higher threshold of disease might be being used when diagnosing Alzheimer's in this group.

[7] More recently, Walker led an analysis of data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, published in 2022 in the journal Neurology, which sought to test the theory that herpes virus infection might cause Alzheimer's disease.

[8] In 2021, Walker became the first NIA scientist to be named an NIH Distinguished Scholar.