Dr. Anthony Fitzpatrick and Collaborators Awarded $7.8M to Identify New Targets Against Brain Disease

Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Dr. Fitzpatrick’s team will focus their efforts primarily on tau tangles, clumps of misfolded tau protein that have been implicated in a host of diseases, most notably Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. By reconstructing the structure of tau tangles in these diseases — atom by atom — the researchers hope to gain new insight into how tangles form, how they grow and how they drive disease progression. These findings will enable researchers to design drug molecules that prevent tangle buildup. They will also aid development of new biomarkers that detect the disease early, before symptoms arise.

Dr. Fitzpatrick will serve as lead principal investigator of this five-year project, which will be administered by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He will be joined by Leonard Petrucelli, PhD, Chair and Professor of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus, and Judith Steen, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital.