Our lab’s research on the earliest biological drivers of Alzheimer’s years before symptoms appear was featured on PIX11 this morning.
Our work centers on the earliest mechanisms driving Alzheimer’s risk — specifically, how breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and neuroinflammation set the stage for disease years before symptoms emerge. We believe this early window is where the greatest opportunity lies to change the disease’s trajectory.
This is the product of a genuine team effort at Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Department of Neurology and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain. Dr. Richard Mayeux, with the human cohorts he built over decades, made Alzheimer’s genetics and all our biological work possible. Dr. Badri Vardarajan analyzed that data and identified the genetic associations that pointed us toward these mechanisms. Our lab then took on the biology, with Dr. Prabesh Bhattarai and Dr. Elanur Yilmaz leading the functional work on fibronectin and the blood-brain barrier. A paper on these findings will be out soon.
We’re thankful to all our collaborators and lab members, and grateful for the support of the American Brain Foundation’s Cure One, Cure Many Award, in collaboration with the National MS Society, Gates Ventures, the NFL Players Association, Genentech, and the WoodNext Foundation, which makes this next phase possible.
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Watch the full segment on PIX11
Kizil Lab 