Allan Levey, MD, PhD, chair of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Emory Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, is scheduled to give a talk titled "Proteomics Discovery of New Alzheimer's Disease Targets," as part of the Dementia: Research Milestones and Policy Priorities session on Friday, Feb. 13.
The session takes place from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM, Room LL21D (San Jose Convention Center).
Levey is expected to describe a "beyond the usual suspects" approach to probing for proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease pathology. "Usual suspects" refers to beta-amyloid and tau, two proteins that accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Some experimental approaches to Alzheimer's treatment aim at curbing beta amyloid, but have not proven effective.
Taking this approach, Levey and his team have already identified a previously unrecognized type of pathology in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, seen at early stages of the disease. They found tangle-like structures that sequester proteins critical for RNA splicing, a discovery that may have implications for the disease mechanism.
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http://www.pnas.org/content/110/41/16562.full
Last year, Emory was awarded a five-year, $7.2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to extend this work in collaboration with five other Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers around the country.
https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2015/webprogram/Session9768.html