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New UCI MIND animal model grant continues to draw attention

By October 25, 2017In the News

(from left) Andrea Wasserman, Frank LaFerla, David Baglietto-Vargas, Grant MacGregor, Ali Mortazavi, Kim Green, Andrea Tenner

UCI MIND co-director Frank LaFerla and Drs. Andrea Tenner, Kim Green, Grant MacGregor, Marcelo Wood, and David Baglietto-Vargas were awarded an $11.35 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the next generation of mouse models to study Alzheimer’s disease. The news released by UCI on October 9 continues to draw local media attention, featured in the LA Times/Daily Pilot and Newport Beach Patch this morning.

UCI MIND is already home to the discovery of the first ever mouse model to develop both amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the two hallmark pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease. Created by Dr. LaFerla’s laboratory, this model was based on genetic mutations that cause the rare young-onset inherited form of the disease. The new grant will allow UCI MIND investigators to take knowledge gained over the years to create a more accurate model of the common, older onset “sporadic” form of Alzheimer’s disease. Such developments will be key to rapid testing of promising therapies and preventions, with improved translational potential for predicting outcomes in human testing.