Celeste Karch, PhD and her collaborators, Carlos Cruchaga, PhD, Gregory Day, MD, and Oscar Harari, PhD received a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) award to investigate the role of microglial proteins encoded by TREM2 and MS4A in Alzheimer’s Disease and possibly other neurodegenerative disorders.
In the WashU News release, Dr. Karch noted that microglia are considered immune response mediators in the brain, which may point to altered immunity as a contributor to Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Cruchaga pointed out that inflammatory immune mechanisms in Alzheimer’s have not been a major focus for researchers. The team will employ high-throughput multiomics to characterize and evaluate the immune mechanisms that may be responsible.