Colonna joins Cure Alzheimer’s Fund research consortium
Recognized for his work on the role of the immune system in Alzheimer’s
Colonna
Marco Colonna, MD, the Robert Rock Belliveau, MD, Professor of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been invited to join Cure Alzheimer’s Fund’s research consortium.
As a member of the consortium, Colonna will work with other Alzheimer’s investigators to identify the most promising avenues of research toward slowing, stopping or reversing the progress of the devastating neurodegenerative disease.
People with certain variants of a gene called TREM2 have an increased susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease. Colonna discovered that the gene is linked to Alzheimer’s risk because it is involved in limiting the spread of plaques of amyloid beta, a sticky brain protein known to play a key role in the development of the disease. His lab continues to study how genetic variations in TREM2 affect the ability of the brain to clear away amyloid beta, with the aim of discovering how it might be targeted to prevent or treat the disease.
