Microglia, the principle immune cells of the brain, play important roles in neuronal development, homeostatic function and neurodegenerative disease. Recent genetic studies have further highlighted the importance of microglia in neurodegeneration with the identification of disease risk polymorphisms in many microglial genes. To better understand the role of these genes in microglial biology and disease, we, and others, have developed methods to differentiate microglia from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). While the development of these methods has begun to enable important new studies of microglial biology, labs with little prior stem cell experience have sometimes found it challenging to adopt these complex protocols. Therefore, we have now developed a greatly simplified approach to generate large numbers of highly pure human microglia.
Dr. Blurton-Jones Awarded Grant To Identify Potential Treatments For Alzheimer’s Disease
By Kirsten
UCI MIND faculty member Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones was awarded a $500,000 grant from Orange County Community Foundation to test 1200+ FDA-approved compounds for effectiveness in Alzheimer’s disease treatment. His lab seeks to find the top 20 genes and drugs that safely prevent brain damage caused by microglia, which are critical immune cells in the brain that ‘prune’ unnecessary neuronal connections, or synapses. In the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, damage can be caused by microglia ‘overpruning’ synapses, leading to loss of necessary connections. UCI News reports that Dr. Blurton-Jones and his team are “grateful to be the recipients of this OCCF grant and remain confident that through our clinical trials and studies, we could be well on our way toward finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.”
UC Irvine study delves into why women are more likely than men to suffer from Alzheimer’s
Two UC Irvine researchers recently began investigating why women are almost twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Drs. Sunil Gandhi and Mathew Blurton-Jones were the winners of a $100,000 grant competition organized by UCI’s Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) and the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, a group founded by Maria Shriver.
Dr. Josh Grill, co-director of UCI MIND, said the move is meant to help focus some of the institute’s best scientists on finding out what leads to the sex disparity in Alzheimer’s diagnoses.
“The idea with this recent partnership is to focus the energy of our best scientists on the relationship between Alzheimer’s and sex and gender,” Grill said. “This’ll let our scientists gather some preliminary data that will make them competitive for larger grants.”
Grill said researchers have traditionally traced the disparity to women’s longer lifespans, considering they are more likely to live to the ages where the risk for Alzheimer’s increases exponentially.
Grill said that while this is the biggest contributor to the imbalance, it’s not the entire explanation.
New research published in June suggested that hormonal influences or pregnancy-related changes in the immune system may increase women’s risk. …
To read the full article from Daily Pilot, click Here.