Young Blood for Old Brains

Florence Mahoney Lecture on Aging | Wednesday, March 31, 2021 | 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET

Tony Wyss-Coray, Ph.D.

Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Stanford University

twc@stanford.edu

Website

Dr. Wyss-Coray is the D.H. Chen Professor in the Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Co-Director, NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He and the Wyss-Coray research team are following up on earlier discoveries which showed that circulatory blood factors can modulate brain structure and function, and that factors from young organisms can rejuvenate old brains and, vice versa, factors from old mice are detrimental for young mice and impair cognition. Wyss-Coray’s lab is part of the Glenn Center for Aging at Stanford University, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute’s Brain Rejuvenation Project, and NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He and his team are funded by the American Heart Association / Allen Initiative, NIA, and the NOMIS Foundation

Summary

Evidence has indicated that the cerebrovasculature is an important target and that brain endothelial cells show prominent age-related transcriptional changes in response to plasma. Scientists also have discovered that plasma proteins are taken up broadly into the brain and that this process varies between individual endothelial cells and with aging. Researchers are currently exploring the relevance of these findings for neurodegeneration. They also are seeking potential applications toward therapies on the molecular basis of this systemic communication with the brain by employing a combination of genetic, cell biology, and proteomics approaches in model organisms and humans.