Brian Kraemer, PhD, Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, has received funding from the National Institute on Aging to study the role of the tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease, using a variety of model organisms, including mouse, C. elegans worm, and human cell models of tau toxicity. Kraemer is a research associate professor in the UW Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, an investigator at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and an affiliate member of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). He also co-directs the Alzheimer’s Disease Training Program (T32) with Elaine Peskind, MD.

The Kraemer Lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the protein pathologies that lead to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and/or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This new grant allows the team to extend previous research demonstrating that the gene sut- 2/MSUT2 controls tau aggregation and toxicity in C. elegans worm and human cell models, and therefore determines a cell’s vulnerability to tau pathology. The team aims to understand how MSUT2 controls tau pathology in living organisms, at a deeper level of biological detail. This knowledge may provide a novel candidate therapeutic target for pharmacological intervention, a key goal of the UW ADRC.