School of Medicine

Researchers receive Alzheimer’s Association funding

(L-R): Enmanuel Perez, MD, PhD; Ibrahim Saliu, PhD; Steffen Storck, PhD

Three researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently have received funding from the Alzheimer’s Association for projects that aim to study and make progress against the disease.

Enmanuel Perez, MD, PhD, an instructor in neurology, has received a $250,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study how traumatic brain injury leads to inflammation, neurodegeneration and dementia, and why people who carry the genetic variant APOE4 are at especially high risk of developing dementia after traumatic brain injury.

Ibrahim Saliu, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neuroscience, has received a $200,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study the role of astrocytes — a major non-neuronal support cell in the brain — in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. As part of this study, Saliu will characterize the diverse subtypes of astrocytes across brain regions and neurodegenerative conditions with a goal of identifying common and disease-specific features.

Steffen Storck, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pathology & Immunology, has received a $200,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study how the systems involved in controlling how fluid flows into, through and out of the brain interact with each other and affect the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Originally published on The Source.