Alzheimer's Disease Research - Current Award

	Kurt R. Brunden, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, United States Title: In Vivo Testing of Novel Tau Fibrillization Inhibitors Non-Technical Title: Inhibiting Formation of Alzheimer's Disease Pathology Duration: July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2013 Award Type: Pilot Award Amount: 150,000
Summary: The accumulation of insoluble fibrils of tau protein within neurons is a hallmark pathological feature of the Alzheimer's disease brain. A body of evidence suggests that these tau fibrils are pathogenic and contribute to the neuron loss observed in Alzheimer's disease. The research proposed here is to further characterize novel drug-like inhibitors of tau fibril formation, and the results of these studies will provide important information about the therapeutic potential of such compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Details:

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the unnatural clumping of misfolded tau proteins into tangles in the brain. These tangles, along with beta‐amyloid plaques, cause brain cell death and problems with memory and other important activities. Dr. Kurt Brunden and colleagues will be testing a number of drugs on Alzheimer’s disease mice to see whether one of them can prevent tau from clumping. The drug that works in mice may be a candidate for future Alzheimer’s disease human clinical trials.

Investigator Biography:

Dr. Kurt R. Brunden is Director of Drug Discovery and Research Associate Professor in the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the University of Pennsylvania.  There he oversees drug discovery programs in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and Parkinson’s disease. Brunden received his B.S. degree from Western Michigan University, with dual majors of biology and health chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Purdue University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Brunden joined the biochemistry faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1988, with a research focus on the regulation of myelination.

He was recruited to the biotechnology sector in 1991, serving as vice president of Research at Gliatech, Inc. and later as senior vice president of Drug Discovery at Athersys, Inc. In these positions, he oversaw projects in Alzheimer’s disease, cognition, schizophrenia, inflammation, and metabolic disease. Brunden was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania in 2007.  He also serves as the chair of the NSD-C translational research study section for the National Institutes of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, is a reviewer and consultant for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and is an ad hoc reviewer for several scientific journals. He has more than 65 publications, a number of issued U.S. patents, and several active patent applications.