2023 Prather Lecture Series: Thomas Südhof
Date and Time
Location
Avram Goldstein Professor Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor, Dept. of Molecular & Cellular Physiology and of Neurosurgery; Professor, Dept. of Neurology & Neurological Sciences and of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
Towards a neuronal cell biology of Alzheimer's Disease
Abstract: Major progress has been achieved recently in Alzheimer’s disease. New insights came in particular from human genetics, gene expression studies, and structural biology. These data suggest that Alzheimer’s disease develops as a result of the damage to neurons that is caused by pathological protein aggregation and that is exacerbated by an inappropriate or insufficient repair process mediated by immune cells called microglia and by astrocytes. However, how Alzheimer’s disease slowly develops over decades to impair brain functions and cause neuronal cell death remains enigmatic. In my talk, I will review the background of groundbreaking studies by others that provided the many insights into Alzheimer’s disease that are now emerging, and then discuss our own fledgling attempts to build on these insights and to contribute to a cell-biological understanding of how neurons are chronically impaired in the course of the disease.
Co-sponsored by The Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology