MORE | Spring 2019

Applying Developmental Biology Principles to Probe the Mechanisms of Selective Cell Vulnerability in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) affects over 5 million individuals in the US. The idea behind selective cell vulnerability in AD and various amyloid-dependent have been postulated. However, such mechanistic studies do not consider all the aspects of the human disease. This research leverages the ability for the generation of neural cell types of various regional identities to investigate the mechanisms that influence cell selective vulnerability in AD through the analysis of 3D human induced pluripotent stem cells derived astrocytic co-culture models and probe characteristics that mediate vulnerability to AD related insults, providing ability to understand AD onset/progression.