Bioengineering Department chair Joseph Pancrazio landed a prestigious grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia to pursue innovative approaches designed to unlock the debilitating puzzle of Alzheimer's disease. Pancrazio's team is using electrodes, similar to those used to measure electrical activity in the brain, to study individual brain cells and test new drugs.
Pancrazio's team has developed a way to take a close look at how an individual brain cell reacts to drugs designed to stop or reduce of the effects of a molecule called amyloid beta, which is considered to be a precursor of Alzheimer's. He's covering sensors with brain cells to create a new screening method to test drugs.
By focusing on a single cell, Pancrazio is quieting the excess noise. "It's as if we can hear every note played by a violinist, not the entire symphony," he says. "Alzheimer's disease is extremely complicated. We're looking at neural activity changes produced by one of the molecules involved in the disease."
The Virginia Center for Aging grant creates new opportunities at George Mason. For bioengineering, the grant offers a new approach and could pave the way to delve into such other complicated diseases as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's, Pancrazio says.
"This award allows us to move into an area that we normally wouldn't," he says. "This is a good way for us to get started."
A version of this story by Michele McDonald appeared in Mason News on September 5, 2014.
