June 03, 2019
Towards use of transcranial, near-diagnostic ultrasound to treat dementia
Date:
Monday, June 3, 2019
4:00-5:00 pm
Maleng Room 111/112
(First floor, right as you enter main Maleng doors)
Harborview Medical Center
Neurodegenerative diseases such as the dementias, among others, represent an increasing burden on individuals and society due to a lack of efficacious therapies, among other factors. As such, these diseases merit increased efforts to develop novel treatments. Research over the last ten years has shown that ultrasound can activate brain - transcranially, temporarily, and non-destructively. After reviewing that literature, I will present preliminary research suggesting it possible (in mice thus far) that ultrasound-facilitated activation of brain may, one day, treat Alzheimer’s Disease, as motivated by the intriguing work of Iaccarino et al (2018, Nature), who showed that 40 Hz light exposure to awake 5XFAN AD mice acutely activated microglia and reduced amyloid beta burden, both acutely and after a week of treatment.
Pierre D. Mourad, PhD
Professor and Program Coordinator
Division of Engineering and Mathematics
University of Washington, Bothell
Professor
Department of Neurological Surgery
Department of Bioengineering (Adjunct)
Applied Physics Laboratory (Affiliate)
University of Washington, Seattle
The UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center supports a monthly meeting with a theme of “Toward Precision Medicine for AD.” The goal of this meeting is to provide a forum for ADRC and related investigators to discuss research projects that align with the Center’s theme of precision medicine for AD.
Precision medicine is an emerging approach to AD that assumes that heterogeneous pathophysiological mechanisms operate in AD, that their relative importance varies across affected individuals with genetic background and environmental factors, and that comorbidity is common. Three key elements of precision medicine are stratification by risk, early detection of pathophysiological processes (ideally before clinical presentation), and alignment of mechanism of intervention with an individual’s molecular driver(s).
Accordingly, the focus of the meeting will be on identifying, describing, and detecting pathophysiologic heterogeneity in AD and related degenerative diseases, with a view to identifying rationale and targets for treatment, and to enhancing the innovation and impact of our work going forward.
The format is flexible, and might take the form of a journal club, slide talk, outside guest speaker, or a “chalk talk” with ample time for discussion and interaction.
For all ADRC talks and events: http://depts.washington.edu/mbwc/adrc/page/talks-events-calendar