Research Summary/Interest

 Abnormal aggregation of proteins in brain during the course of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

 Aging of the world’s population has amplified neurodegenerative disorders, of which Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the most common. Given the continued challenges for therapy that improves cognitive function for those afflicted, it is apparent that our knowledge of the disease remains incomplete. Therefore there is a pressing need to understand molecular mechanisms better. 

Using super-resolution infrared microspectroscopy combined with other molecular imaging techniques, Medical Microspectrocopy (MMS) group is developing ultra-sensitive protocols to study amyloid protein aggregation in brain tissue and cells. Using novel approaches,   MMS research team aims to understand the relationship between amyloid structure and its neurotoxicity and how neurotoxic amyloid aggregates spread the pathology.