Dr. Debby Tsuang is a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist, UW Professor, and researcher who seeks to advance our understanding and treatment of complex aging-related disorders.
In her role as a co-investigator in the ADRC Clinical Core, she has used her skills as a geriatric psychiatrist to assess study subjects who are enrolled in the UW ADRC and then investigated risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and developed biomarkers, especially biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), for the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to studying the conventional AD biomarkers of Aβ1-42 and tau, she has worked with fellow ADRC investigators to determine the relationship of other potential CSF biomarkers, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), F2-isoprostane, and norepinephrine, to brain function in normal adults. As a PI, she was funded by the National Institutes on Aging to conduct a clinical trial of simvastatin on the risk of Alzheimer's disease in normal adult volunteers using the CSF biomarker as a primary study outcome. As an epidemiologist, she has been a long-time co-investigator on a community-based cohort study of dementia, the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, building an understand of the role of cardiovascular risks and protective factors in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Research Interests
Clinical-neuropathology of dementing disorders; Psychosis in dementia genetics; Endophenotypes of schizophrenia
