2019 Undergraduate Summer Research Program Participant

Home Department: Chemical Engineering
Mentor: Tony Wyss-Coray, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain and are responsible for maintaining homeostasis in the central nervous system by various means, including phagocytosis, or ingestion, of pathogens and cellular debris. With age and in neurodegenerative diseases, the ability of microglia to phagocytose decreases, and this change is associated with a decline in cognitive abilities. Jerry’s project interrogates the role of the CD22 gene on the impairment of microglial phagocytic capacity, with the aim of uncovering potential targets to restore microglial phagocytosis as a therapeutic strategy in age-related neurodegenerative disease.