Upstate Medical University has been awarded $1.5 million by New York state to create an advanced research center for brain diseases.
Announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Upstate’s $ 1.5 million award is part of a $10 million, multi-campus initiative called the SUNY Brain Institute, which aims to expand SUNY’s neuroscience research to combat Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and other age-related brain disorders.
Led by the State University of New York at Buffalo, and including the State University of New York at Binghamton, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, SUNY College of Optometry and Upstate Medical University, the network will bring together complementary infrastructure, scientific expertise, and research capabilities to accelerate discovery, advance technological innovation, and improve health outcomes for New Yorkers.
Upstate will establish the Biospecimen-iPSC-Organoid (BiO) Node, which will integrate biospecimens, induced pluripotent stem cells and organoid models to support human-centered neuroscience research.
“These are obviously very complex diseases,” said Upstate’s Rick Matthews, PhD, associate professor and vice chair for neuroscience and physiology. “Understanding the pathology and developing effective treatments for these complex disorders requires resources beyond the reach of any single lab or campus. By establishing this cross-campus network, we can coordinate our expertise, equipment, and advanced techniques to accelerate progress together.”
Matthews is the principal investigator, joined by co-PIs Brian Howell, PhD, and Tinatin Chabrashvili, MD, PhD. Together with contributing faculty and staff from the clinical departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the basic science department of Neuroscience & Physiology, they bring expertise spanning advanced cellular, molecular, and biochemical analyses to human neural physiology.
Howell and Chabrashvili will lead the BiO Node’s scientific and daily operations. State-of-the-art techniques will reprogram patient blood samples into pluripotent stem cells, which will then be used to create neurons, other brain cell types and higher-order brain-like structures in a dish—organoids genetically identical to the patient. This will offer SUNY Brain Institute researchers the means to create human models of age-related neurological diseases.
Key to creating impactful organoid models is collecting samples from well-characterized, precisely diagnosed patient populations. Chabrashvili, director of the Neurodegenerative Disorder Center, will spearhead this effort, building on the deeply phenotyped patient cohort and diagnostic infrastructure she has established at Upstate. She, Howell, and the BiO Node will work with Upstate neurologists and neurosurgeons, expanding over time to include clinicians at other SUNY campuses and hospitals.
Matthews likens the organoids to avatars that can model the disease as it presents in the specific patient.
“Being able to develop models derived from the actual patients is a critical step forward,” he said. “In the short term, it will enable research to develop novel therapeutic strategies. In the long term it may put us in a position to develop individualized therapies.”
An estimated 427,000 New Yorkers have Alzheimer’s or related dementias, a figure that is projected to rise with aging population.
“New York State is investing in transformative research that dives into issues affecting communities throughout the state,” Hochul said. “By connecting leading researchers and advanced infrastructures across New York, the SUNY Brain Institute will accelerate work on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and other age-related brain disorders to find cures so families in every community have the quality time together that they deserve.”
Adds Matthews: “The SUNY Brain Institute has the potential to be transformative.”