Neurobiology and Neurologic Disease Research Overview - Molecular Pathology

Research Overview - Neurobiology and Neurologic Disease

Acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders, such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), and Huntington's disease, represent the third-leading cause of death in the United States. HIV-associated dementia also falls into this category, representing a form of neurodegeneration precipitated by viral infection and representing the most common cause of dementia world-wide in persons age 40 or less. Diabetes provides yet another example of a disease with neurodegenerative consequences and is the most common cause in the USA of chronic pain syndromes from peripheral neuropathy. Another important example is glaucoma, the leading cause of blindness in the North America, which is due, at least in part, to retinal ganglion cell death resulting from processes common to other neurodegenerative diseases. The Degenerative Disease Research Program seeks to understand the fundamental molecular changes responsible for cell and tissue degeneration in the nervous system and other organ-systems. The faculty in this program are a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary group with combined expertise in neurotransmitter receptor/ion-channel electrophysiology, mouse models of stroke and neuro-degeneration, nitrosyl-free radical chemistry, and signal transduction research. Discoveries made by scientists in this Program have laid the foundation for development of a new drug for treatment of advanced Alzheimer's, recently approved in the European Union, which blocks a neurotransmitter receptor that kills brain cells when hyper-active. Multiple additional strategies for preventing cell loss in the brain have begun to emerge from the work conducted by members of this Program.

Training for Careers in Biomedical Research

Training for Careers in
Biomedical Research