Laurie Sanders is an assistant professor in the Departments of Neurology and Pathology at Duke University Medical Center. She is also a Member of the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Her research focuses on the underlying mechanisms of Parkinson's disease, including the role of mitochondrial DNA damage, repair and dysfunction.

Sanders received her BS from Cornell University and her PhD degree in biochemistry from the University at Buffalo. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh.