2014

The New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer's Disease


Catherine Kaczorowski, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Systems Genetics of Cognitive Aging: The Use of the BXD Murine Reference Panel to Identify the Genetic Modifiers of Memory Funct

Dr. Kaczorowski believes it is likely that individual genetic differences strongly influence the risk and severity of the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). With the support from the New Investigator Award, she will be developing a new mouse model using a strategy to identify genes that cause or worsen memory decline in aging and the most common form of Alzheimer’s Disease. Identifying these genes have been difficult to explain in human studies because of large and uncontrollable differences in genetic and environmental factors.

There is currently a lack of adequate tools to determine the genetic differences in the most common form of AD. The study will use mouse strains that integrate genetic complexity yet control environmental factors in order to identify genetic modifiers of cognitive aging. If individual variants that lead to elevated risk for dementia can be discovered, it will help physicians identify those patients who are at increased risk and intervene earlier in disease progression. This may also provide new targets for the development of therapeutics designed for earlier and more effective treatment of dementia.

More 2014 Recipients of this Grant

Joshua Shulman, MD, PhD

CD2AP and the integration of synaptic structure with function in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease

Michal Arbel, PhD

Impaired drainage of solutes from the brain as a common mechanism of brain aging and amyloid deposition in Cerebral amyloid angi

Roberto Fernandez-Romero, MD, MPH, PhD

Mechanisms of Impaired Navigation in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease