Home Department: undeclared
Mentor: Brad Zuchero (Neurosurgery)

“Building New AAV Tools for Studying the Role of Myelin in Neurodegenerative Disease”

As the aging population grows, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) cases – currently ~6,700,000 in the US – are projected to increase dramatically. Recent research increasingly suggests that myelin dysfunction plays an important role in AD. However, progress in this field is restricted by limitations in genetic engineering using adeno-associated viruses. Puja’s project tests several methods to optimize AAVs, including increasing their packaging capacity by shortening promoter sequences and replacing standard long poly-A tails with short poly-A tails found in myelin basic protein genes. Thus, researchers can study larger genes involved in myelin dysfunction, increasing possibilities for glial biology research and leading to new directions for Alzheimer’s therapeutics.