Jodi McBride, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Her laboratory is situated at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) and her research program is aimed at both modeling and treating neurodegenerative diseases with a current focus on Huntington’s and Batten diseases. Her expertise in viral gene delivery has allowed for the creation of a rhesus macaque model of Huntington’s disease that closely replicates the neuropathology, transcript dysregulation and behavioral manifestations of the disease. Additionally, as part of a large collaborative effort, her group discovered and characterized the first non-human primate model of Batten disease. A cohort of CLN7 mutant Japanese macaques at the ONPRC show lysosomal storage accumulation, progressive blindness, tremor and ataxia, with a severe atrophy of the cerebellum and cerebrum. With these primate models in hand, she is working collaboratively to develop novel biomarkers of disease expression (imaging and biofluids) as well as assess gene therapy strategies, with a keen interest in using novel viral vector serotypes to optimize delivery of the appropriate gene to the brain regions most effected in each disease.