What inspired you to pursue aging research?
During my PhD studies on sleep and memory at Tel Aviv University, I began investigating the sleep of healthy older individuals and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). While mounting the EEG electrodes for overnight recordings, I had fascinating conversations with patients and volunteers. I was captivated by their life stories and perspectives, but also deeply saddened to see how aMCI patients struggled to form new memories, unable to add chapters to their life stories. If we could all become clear-minded centenarians, it could produce tremendous effects on human insight, society, and culture.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean, for you, to receive an AFAR grant now?
While the NIH provides significant support for aging research, securing designated funding for pioneering early-stage projects can be challenging. AFAR’s support offers crucial seed funding that enables the collection of preliminary results. For me, receiving this award is a tremendous vote of confidence. It will allow me to advance our research more rapidly, generate substantial preliminary data, and potentially secure additional support for this research direction.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
Sleep is essential for maintaining brain health. Extensive research has confirmed its critical role in preserving cognitive function as we age. But why? Or more exactly what is specifically about sleep that is critical and can go wrong? Uncovering the answer to these basic scientific questions will open the road for clinical intervention. Unlike other aging and Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers, impaired brain clearance could be related to the disease mechanism and therefore could go beyond early detection. Potentially, enhancing glymphatic function could become a goal. The ability to mitigate the effects of aging on the brain and prevent cognitive decline could have far-reaching implications for public health.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
Imagine your brain has a built-in cleaning system that clears out waste while you sleep, much like how your body gets rid of toxins. My research focuses on understanding how this brain-cleaning system, called the glymphatic system might slow down as we age and whether this slower clearance is associated with the accumulation of Alzheimer’s-related pathology. By studying this process when it peaks, during sleep, we hope to establish that impaired clearance is involved in the pathological accumulation of toxins. If true, this could pave the way to clinical intervention that could help maintain better memory and cognitive function in those vulnerable to cognitive decline.
