News and Events | Page 3 | Helen & Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute

Congratulations to the Appel and BMRI Summer Scholars, Derbie Desir and Zyrai Lisse!

The Appel and BMRI Summer Diversity Scholar Program warmly congratulates this year’s scholars, Derbie Desir and Zyrai Lisse.

Derbie is a rising senior at New York City College Of Technology. She was mentored by Drs. Jennifer Linden and Tim Vartanian and presented her summer project titled “Detection of Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin (ETX) in the central nervous system of mice using a newly developed ETX antibody.”

Zyrai completed her research project “Alpha-synuclein...

Congratulations to Celeste Parra Bravo, a 2023 Dompe Foundation’s Rita L. Montalcini Scholarship recipient!

Celeste Parra Bravo, a graduate student in the Gan Lab, received the Dompe Foundation’s Rita L. Montalcini Scholarship. This competitive fellowship was awarded to Celeste for her outstanding research in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying tau-mediated neurodegeneration using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models.

See HERE for the WCM Graduate School of Medical Sciences post...

Congratulations to Dr. Till Zimmer for receiving two postdoctoral fellowships!

Dr. Till Zimmer from the Orr lab was honored with competitive postdoctoral fellowships from the Alzheimer’s Association and the BrightFocus Foundation for his proposal, “Molecular mechanisms and effects of Alzheimer’s-related lipid dysregulation in astrocytes.” His research aims to broadly characterize disease-associated lipid changes in astrocytes, identify key regulators of these changes, and ultimately explore novel lipid-based therapeutic targets and biomarkers in AD, FTD, and related...

Burré lab member Dr. Lauren Komer graduates!

The Appel Institute community warmly congratulates Dr. Lauren Komer on her successful dissertation defense!

Dr. Komer’s completed her research titled “The Role of Membrane Binding of α-Synuclein in the Central and Enteric Nervous System” in the laboratory of Dr. Jacqueline Burré. Dr. David Simon served as her chair and was accompanied by Drs. David Eliezar and Giovanni Manfredi on her examining committee.

Congratulations again to Dr. Lauren Komer! We wish all the best on the next...

Tau activation of microglial cGAS–IFN reduces MEF2C-mediated cognitive resilience

The latest study from the Gan Lab, published in Nature Neuroscience, revealed a striking contribution of cGAS-interferon-MEF2C network to tau-induced neurotoxicities in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. They found that tau-activation of cGAS in AD diminishes cognitive resilience by decreasing the neuronal transcriptional network of MEF2C through type I interferon (IFN-I) signaling.

The study was led by Dr. Sadaf Amin, Yige (Gloria) Huang, and Dr. Joe Udeochu in the...