Andy Tsai, PhD Portfolio Item

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, robust microgliosis, neuroinflammation, and neuronal loss. AD is the most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 50 million people worldwide, and this number is expected to increase significantly due to the lack of effective treatments and the . . .

Isha Jain, PhD Portfolio Item

Metabolic syndrome encompasses a cluster of interrelated risk factors, including glucose intolerance, obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, that significantly elevate the likelihood of developing diabetes. Approximately 25% of the US population is affected by this multifaceted syndrome, imposing a substantial healthcare burden. Consequently, there is a pressing need to explore innovative . . .

Zoe Quandt, MD Portfolio Item

Within the last decade, immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) have changed the landscape of cancer care, but also heightened risk for a range of novel side effects called immune related adverse events (irAEs). One important but rare irAE is insulin dependent autoimmune diabetes (CPI-DM). Within this project, Dr Quandt has a . . .

Kimberly Lewis, PhD Portfolio Item

The mechanisms underlying risk for Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) are not the same across individuals, and therefore risk-reducing interventions are unlikely to work equally well across all individuals. At the cellular level, various biologic systems interact in the manifestation of disease. Beyond the genetic code, which can predispose individuals toward . . .

Xuchen Zhang, PhD Portfolio Item

Aging is a global process, resulting in disrupted homeostatic function and a loss of neurogenic capacity in the mammalian brain. Synapses serve as the fundamental computational units in the brain that mediate rapid point-to-point communication between neurons, and thereby connect neurons into circuits. When aging is associated with brain functions, . . .

Xin Jin, PhD Portfolio Item

Aging affects all of us. Among all the organs, brain aging is particularly challenging. This is because of the lack of options in tissue transplant and the unique biology and susceptibility of the brain to aging. Most neurons are born during development and must maintain their function throughout life. The . . .

Sarah Kaufman, MD, PhD Portfolio Item

As our lifespan continues to expand, several aging-related diseases including dementia are becoming increasingly common and will lead to devastating effects on our older population. Dementia is caused by progressive brain atrophy and impaired cognitive function. In several types of dementia neurons accumulate disease-specific proteins that are misfolded and aggregated, . . .