UVA students discuss latest research to fight Alzheimer’s disease

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Two University of Virginia students are taking part in research to help fight Alzheimer’s disease.

“We are taking in sort of a different approach to studying and Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on how our immune system can react and sort of control or exacerbate different aspects of the pathology that causes Alzheimer’s disease,” Lexi Johnson, student in the neuroscience graduate program, said. “We take certain risk factors - whether that be head injury or genetic risk factors that we see in the clinic - and we put those into either mouse models or cell culture models.”

Johnson adds, “By studying this kind of different approach, by looking at the immune system, we’re just adding another layer of potential therapeutic targets that can be moved into the clinic.”

“It’s incredible that so many people have Alzheimer’s disease, but there’s really not a single treatment out there to actually help these patients,” Addy Walsh, student in the physiology department, said.

Walsh says their lab has recently published two papers, which talk about ways to delay memory loss.

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