Aging and Neurodegeneration in a Human Brain Tissue Model

One of the major challenges in neurodegenerative disease research has been finding appropriate models to study the molecular and cellular biology of these diseases. This project aims to develop a novel human tissue system combining adult human brain tissue from surgical patients with stem cell technology. One of the advantages of this system is that the stem cells can be manipulated to express different neurodegenerative disease related genes. The team will utilize this system to explore cellular interactions, with an initial focus on the role of immune cells (microglia) in Alzheimer’s disease.

This project was selected for the second phase of the Collaborative Pairs RFA.