Disease Focus: Alzheimer's Disease
ES-Derived Cells for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, affecting over 5 million people in the US alone. Boosting immune responses to beta-Amyloid (Aβ) has proven beneficial in mouse models and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Vaccinating Alzheimer’s mice with Aβ improves cognitive performance and lessens pathological features within the brain, such as […]
ES-Derived Cells for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, affecting over 5 million people in the US alone. Boosting immune responses to beta-Amyloid (Aβ) has proven beneficial in mouse models and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Vaccinating Alzheimer’s mice with Aβ improves cognitive performance and lessens pathological features within the brain, such as […]
Neural Stem Cells as a Developmental Candidate to Treat Alzheimer Disease
Alzheimer disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia among the elderly and the third leading cause of death, presently afflicts over 5 million people in the USA, including over 500,000 in California. Age is the major risk factor, with 5% of the population over age 65 affected, with the incidence doubling every 5 years […]
Defining the Isoform-Specific Effects of Apolipoprotein E on the Development of iPS Cells into Functional Neurons in Vitro and in Vivo
GOALS We propose to determine the effects of different forms of apoE on the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into functional neurons. In Aim 1, iPS cells will be generated from skin cells of adult knock-in (KI) mice expressing different forms of human apoE and in humans with different apoE genotypes. In Aim […]
Using Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Understand and to Develop New Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive incurable disease that robs people of their memory and ability to think and reason. It is emotionally, and sometimes financially devastating to families that must cope when a parent or spouse develops AD. Unfortunately, however, we currently lack an understanding of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) that is sufficient to drive […]
Development of human ES cell lines as a model system for Alzheimer disease drug discovery
Alzheimer disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that currently affects over 4.5 million Americans. By the middle of the century, the prevalence of AD in the USA is projected to almost quadruple. As current therapies do not abate the underlying disease process, it is very likely that AD will continue to be a clinical, […]
Generation of forebrain neurons from human embryonic stem cells
The goal of this proposal is to generate forebrain neurons from human embryonic stem cells. Our general strategy is to sequentially expose ES cells to signals that lead to differentiation along a neuronal lineage, and to select for cells that display characteristics of forebrain neurons. These cells would then be used in transplantation experiments to […]
Systemic Protein Factors as Modulators of the Aging Neurogenic Niche
Approaches to repair the injured brain or even prevent age-related neurodegeneration are in their infancy but there is growing interest in the role of neural stem cells in these conditions. Indeed, there is hope that some day stem cells can be used for the treatment of spinal cord injury, stroke, or Parkinson’s disease and stem […]
Drug Development of Inhibitors of Inflammation Using Human iPSC-Derived Microglia (hiMG)
Research Objective We will screen for modifiers of the response to misfolded αSyn and Aβ, and their cognate antibodies. Development of drugs to combat this inflammation is important in neurodegenerative diseases. Impact Inhibiting the immune response to minimize NLRP3 inflammasome activation may prevent the neurotoxic effect of activated microglia, and attenuate disease progression in neurodegenerative […]
An exosome-based translational strategy to mitigate Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology
Research Objective These studies will determine whether stem cell derived exosomes (nano-scale vesicles) can be used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Impact Our stem cell-derived exosome therapy will provide a viable approach to ameliorate the relentless progression of AD that severely impacts quality of life for millions of patients and their families. […]