Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, 56, an acclaimed neuroscientist and former Cranston resident, may not be a household name, but he should be.

Tanzi led a team of researches in creating “Alzheimer’s in a Dish” – human brain cells in a petri dish that developed the structures associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The breakthrough represents a major step in studying the disease and will allow for the cheap and rapid testing of drugs for use in its treatment.

It is the latest in a string of achievements in Tanzi’s career, one that had its genesis in Cranston and its schools.

“Sometimes I chuckle to myself when I am lecturing at Harvard or to a couple of thousand people at a large scientific conference, and I am remembering how my physics teacher [Katherine Babcock] at [Cranston High School] East taught me to remember basic formulas in the back of my mind,” he said.

Tanzi, 56, is the son of Ann Tanzi and her late husband, Rudolph Tanzi. Along with his mother, his father began a medical transcription service for hospitals, Cranston-based Professional Dictation Service of New England. It was the first business in the country to outsource the preparation of medical records for hospitals.

“My mom and dad were pioneers in that area, which is now a major industry,” he said.

Tanzi’s twin sister, Anne, also went to Cranston East and graduated with him in 1976. She then helped their mother run the medical transcription business and now works in the Cranston Public Schools. Tanzi is married to Dora Kovacs, who is also researching Alzheimer’s at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. Together, they have a 6-year-old daughter, Lyla.

A member of the Cranston Hall of Fame, Tanzi credits his education in the city’s schools as playing a major role in shaping his professional life.

“I grew up in Cranston on Laurel Hill Avenue and graduated East in 1976,” he said. “I played varsity soccer on the state championship team in 1974. Lyle Perra was my coach and also my history teacher. Because of his influence, I not only received a B.S. in microbiology but also a B.A. in history at University of Rochester.

“My interest in science and biology were first sparked by my science teachers at Gladstone Elementary and then, especially, at Cranston East, where the science program was among the best in the state,” he continued. “From biology to chemistry to physics, I still remember the little tricks my teachers at Cranston East taught me to remember formulas and the like.”

Aside from the classroom, Tanzi said his mother was the “main reason” he decided to pursue medical research.

“Because of her own career in medical transcription, she basically knew about as much as most physicians while I was growing up,” he said.

Tanzi serves as the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, and Vice-Chair of Neurology and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been studying the genetics of neurological diseases since the 1980s and has helped to discover genes linked to Huntington’s disease, Wilson’s disease and several forms of Alzheimer’s. He has received the two highest awards give in the field of Alzheimer’s research – the Metropolitan Life Award and The Potamkin Prize – and serves as chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Consortium.

Other honors include being listed among the “Harvard 100 Most Influential Alumni” by 02138 magazine; being named one of the “Rock Stars of Science” by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation in GQ magazine; and being voted one of the “Most Influential Scientific Minds in the World” this year.

Tanzi has also co-authored “Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease” with Ann B. Parson, and the recent New York Times bestseller “Super Brain” with Dr. Deepak Chopra. The latter has been produced as a television show for PBS under the same name.

Tanzi said his most recent Alzheimer’s breakthrough came after a colleague, Doo Yeon Kim, suggested growing human brain cells in a gel. The cells began to form networks like those found in a real brain. The neurons were then given the genes for Alzheimer’s, and within weeks the cells began to develop plaques and tangles – hard clumps and spaghetti-like coils – that represent the core features of the disease.

“It looks like you are looking at an Alzheimer’s brain,” Tanzi told the New York Times.

The results of the work were published in the journal Nature in October. Having replicated the effects of Alzheimer’s on an actual brain, Tanzi now said the testing of drugs can occur at an exponentially more rapid pace than was previously possible. He is working to test the 1,200 drugs currently on the market and another 5,000 experimental drugs that have gone through the first round of clinical tests.

“It’s a giant step forward for the field,” Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, an Alzheimer’s researcher at Duke University, told the Times. “It could dramatically accelerate testing of new drug candidates.”

Tanzi’s scientific work has also led him to a unique opportunity related to his other passion: music.

When he was named one of the “Rock Stars of Science” in 2010, Tanzi met Joe Perry, lead guitarist for the iconic group Aerosmith. The two began to talk, and Tanzi, who began with the accordion before moving to organ, piano and harmonica, was invited to play with the rock legend.

“Since then, I have been playing keyboards on and off with Joe Perry and played keyboards on the last Aerosmith album,” Tanzi said. “So, it’s Alzheimer’s research by day and writing books and playing music by night when I am not with my family.”

Like his love of science, Tanzi’s musical pursuits have their roots in Cranston. He performed with the band Asylum during his years in the city’s schools, creating “some of my greatest childhood memories,” he said, along with the times spent playing with his twin sister at recess.

“Cranston East was where I first met my bandmates and learned how to play the keyboard. My class voted me ‘Most Musical,’” he said. “Maybe that inspired me to now be playing with Joe Perry and Aerosmith. It’s funny to think that some of the same Aerosmith songs I played at the Cranston East Junior Prom I am now playing with Joe Perry.”

Tanzi now lives in Massachusetts, but his connection to his hometown remains strong.

“I think Cranston taught me to diversify and branch out to embrace versatility and try to excel at more than one thing on life,” he said. “Maybe it’s something in the water.”