Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
I am interested in understanding mechanisms outside of the central nervous system that contribute to Alzheimer Disease (AD) pathogenesis and aim to translate biological discoveries in preclinical disease models into novel therapeutic strategies. My current focus is to understand how human gut microbiota modulate neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in a gnotobiotic mouse model of tauopathy. If successful, results from these studies will provide a strong scientific rationale to further develop microbiome-based interventions such as specific diets, depletion of toxic gut bacterial species, or supplementation of anti-inflammatory gut-derived metabolites to modulate the progression of neuronal loss during AD.