Do not be afraid of exploring new research directions and initiating new projects involving different disciplines outside your comfort zone.
Current medications for Alzheimer’s disease are limited to treating cognitive symptoms, mental deficits and agitation, yet fail to directly prevent or halt disease progression. To date, the process for developing new therapeutics has suffered significant setbacks due to formidable hurdles. This project seeks to develop new agents that can efficiently enter the brain to enable noninvasive, early detection of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, and monitor disease progression and response to therapy, using clinically available imaging equipment. The project will also develop small particles to shuttle drug and growth factors to the brain to reduce neuron injury and stimulate neuron regrowth.
Photo credit: Jef Ekins