Dr. Galvan’s research focuses on the molecular and biochemical processes that lead to dementia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurological disorders of aging. She has generated models of Alzheimer's and used them to identify novel mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Dr. Galvan pioneered the study of mechanisms that link brain aging to the pathogenesis of AD and other dementias. Her laboratory identified the mammalian-target of rapamycin (mTOR) as a central driver of disease in surrogate models of AD and vascular cognitive impairment, providing the first evidence for a role of a molecular mediator of aging in the etiology of AD and related dementias. Dr. Galvan’s laboratory also provided the first description of pathogenic forms of tau in brain microvasculature of Alzheimer's and other tauopathies. 

Dr. Galvan is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair of Aging Research at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.  She serves as Director of the NIA P30 Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, is Co-Director of the NIA P20 Center of Excellence in Biomedical Research (CoBRE), and Co-Director of the Oklahoma Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging at OUHSC.  Dr. Galvan’s research program has been continuously funded since 2007 by NIH, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and by non-federal funding agencies. She has contributed new intellectual property to five U.S. patents and applications.  Dr. Galvan is a Fellow of the American Aging Association and has received prestigious awards including but not limited to a Lucille P. Markey Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences, a Young Investigator Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation, and a John D. French Alzheimer’s Foundation Fellowship.  Dr. Galvan has contributed 85 scientific publications, some cited over 1000 times, with h-index=51 and over 8,000 total citations. Dr. Galvan is member of the Board of Directors of the American Aging Association, served as its President (2021-2022) and is Editor-in-Chief of Geroscience, the Journal of the American Aging Association.