Highlights 2011:
“International expert to lead new centre” – Recruitment as Director of CADR (Centre for Ageing Dementia Research) as of Feb 6, 2012
Newsletter QBI (Queensland Brain Institute) No. 19
5th A+PD Symposium – AUGUST 25-26, 2011
After the success of the previous symposia, the Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease Laboratory at the Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI) of the University of Sydney hosted the
5th A&PD Symposium on Mechanisms in Neurodegeneration.
As before, the focus was on neurodegeneration in a very broad sense. As in the previous years, around 15 highly esteemed speakers from both Australia and overseas presented their exciting work. This year, overseas speakers included Professor Karen Duff (Columbia University) and David Holtzman (WUSTL, St Louis). In addition, we had a poster session with three poster prizes awarded on the second day of the symposium.
Amyloid-beta and tau – a toxic pas de deux in Alzheimer’s disease
Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2011 Feb;12(2):65-72. Epub 2010 Dec 31.
Amyloid-β and tau are the two hallmark proteins in Alzheimer’s disease. Although both amyloid-β and tau have been extensively studied individually with regard to their separate modes of toxicity, more recently new light has been shed on their possible interactions and synergistic effects in Alzheimer’s disease. Here, we review novel findings that have shifted our understanding of the role of tau in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease towards being a crucial partner of amyloid-β. As we gain a deeper understanding of the different cellular functions of tau, the focus shifts from the axon, where tau has a principal role as a microtubule-associated protein, to the dendrite, where it mediates amyloid-β toxicity.
Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21193853
Highlights 2010:
NHMRC Achievement Award for Highest Ranked Project Grant
16 December 2010: At the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Excellence Awards in Canberra, Professor Jürgen Götz received the NHMRC Achievement Award for Highest Ranked Project Grant. Australia’s peak body for health and medical research presented the awards to recognise the scientific merit, innovation and the research success of 10 of Australia’s leading health and medical researchers.
Link: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/media/media/rel10/121610.htm
Merck Young Achiever Award 2010
18 November 2010: Dr Lars Ittner, Group Leader in the Laboratory for Translational Neurodegeneration, received the “Merck Young Achiever Award 2010 – For Excellence in Translational Medical Research” presented by The Australian Society for Medical Research and Merck Pty Ltd. This awards is in recognition of his team’s groundbreaking work on the cellular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease which was published this year in the prestigious journal Cell.
Alzheimer breakthrough published in Cell
23 July 2010: Researchers led by Professor Jürgen Götz and Dr Lars Ittner from the BMRI’s Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease Laboratory have achieved a major breakthrough by finding the causes of Alzheimer’s disease at a cellular level and thereby identifying a potential therapy as a result. Read the press release and coverage in the Herald Sun, ABC news, Channel 7 news, and Channel 10 news.
Tau-directed treatment published in PNAS
van Eersel et al., PNAS, 2010 Aug 3;107(31):13888-93
Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20643941
Group meetings: We have group meetings every Wednesday from 9 am-10 am.
Highlights 2009:
Highly commented publication in PNAS (2009):
Amyloid-beta and tau synergistically impair the oxidative phosphorylation system in triple transgenic Alzheimer’s disease mice
(Comments: AlzForum and Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2010)
Gotz, Press Release October 2009
Highlights 2008:
Discovery provides model for Alzheimer’s breakthrough PNAS (2008)
Professor Jürgen Götz, Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney; Winner: Biomedical Sciences Category, NSW Scientist of the Year 2009 Awards
NSW Scientist of the Year 2009 Awards
Journal clubs:
In progress
Conference 2010:
Program: 4th A&PD Symposium (22-23 April 2010)
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