Ornit Chiba-Falek, PhD, and Simon Davis, PhD, both recently received new grants for multidisciplinary research to advance our understanding of Alzhiemer’s disease. The Duke University School of Medicine awarded its $50,000 Khan Neurodegeneration Award to Chiba-Falek along with Boris Kantor, PhD (Duke Neurobiology) and Nenad Bursac, PhD (Pratt School of Engineering) for their collaborative project, “hiPSC-derived 3D tri-culture system to model the role of APOE in Alzheimer's disease.” This project will provide unique insighst into the molecular mechanisms through which APOE exerts its pathogenic effect on late onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) and will translate this mechanistic understanding into establishing a proof of concept for a novel therapeutic approach targeting APOE gene expression to alleviate disease phenotypes. Read more about his research here.
Simon Davis, PhD, meanwhile, along with Rich O'Brien, MD, PhD and Marty Woldorff, PhD, (Duke Psychiatry) have received a $40,000 award from the National Institutes on Aging to develop a novel, multimodal brain stimulation intervention to improve bilateral communication and memory functioning in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Davis and his team will develop a dual-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device for use with concurrent EEG, in order to monitor ongoing brain activity and entrain the left and right prefrontal cortex to common frequencies during episodic memory tasks. Read more about his work here.