Karen K. Hsiao Ashe is a professor at the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School, where she holds the Edmund Wallace and Anne Marie Tulloch Chairs in Neurology and Neuroscience.  She is the founding director of the N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research and Care, and her specific research interest is memory loss resulting from Alzheimers disease and related dementias. Her research has included the development of an animal model of Alzheimers.
In  July 2022, concerns were raised that certain images in a 2006 Nature paper co-authored by Ashes postdoctoral student Sylvain Lesné were manipulated. In May of 2023, the Star Tribune reported that Ashe was using new techniques to re-do the work reported in the 2006 Nature study, and that she stated "its my responsibility to establish the truth of what we've published".