Key points from article :
The University of Notre Dame has received its first award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to fund research on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. The project brings together the expertise of Cody Smith from Notre Dame and Beth Stevens from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Their research will focus on how aging alters gene expression, potentially leading to these diseases.
Stevens’ team will use advanced sequencing to identify how genes change at different ages. These findings will then be analyzed by Smith’s team using a zebrafish model to understand the role of microglia, the brain’s immune cells, in development and disease. The researchers aim to discover how microglia malfunction with age, which may contribute to the onset of neurodegenerative conditions.
This collaboration, supported by a $200,000 grant over 18 months, also provides Smith and Stevens with access to a wider network of researchers, fostering collaboration and innovation in the fight against brain diseases.
