Alzheimer's Disease Genetic Research with Dr. Rudy Tanzi

Today's Episode Dr. Raj talks with Dr. Rudy Tanzi about his work in
Alzheimer's Disease research, his acronym SHIELD for evading its
progression, and how his background as a musician has intersected
with this work.  Today’s Guest Dr. Tanzi is the Vice-Chair of
Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit,
Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain
Health, and Co-Director of the MassGeneral Institute for
Neurodegenerative Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital. He
also serves as the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of
Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tanzi received his BS
(microbiology) and BA (history) at the University of Rochester in
1980 and his PhD (neurobiology) at Harvard Medical School in 1990.
Dr. Tanzi co-discovered the first Alzheimer’s disease (AD) gene,
the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, and the two other
early-onset familial AD genes, presenilin 1 and presenilin 2. As
leader of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project, Dr.
Tanzi identified several other AD genes, including CD33, the first
AD gene shown to regulate neuroinflammation. He also discovered the
Wilson’s disease gene and other neurological disease genes. Dr.
Tanzi’s team was the first to use human stem cells to create
three-dimensional neural-glial; cell culture organoids of AD,
dubbed “Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish”. This model was the first to
recapitulate all three key AD pathological hallmarks in vitro, and
first to definitively show that amyloid plaques directly cause
neurofibrillary tangles - and also made drug screening for AD
faster and more cost-effective. Using this system, Dr. Tanzi has
developed several novel therapies for AD including gamma secretase
modulators targeting amyloid pathology and AMX0035, which was
already successful in a clinical trial of ALS and now seeking FDA
approval. Dr. Tanzi also discovered that beta-amyloid plays a
functional role in the brain as an anti-microbial peptide,
supporting a role for infection in AD pathology. Dr. Tanzi serves
as Chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Leadership Group and
numerous advisory and editorial boards. He has been named to TIME
magazine’s list of TIME100 Most Influential People in the World.
Dr. Tanzi is a New York Times bestselling author who has
co-authored the books Decoding Darkness, and the bestsellers Super
Brain, Super Genes, and The Healing Self with Dr. Deepak Chopra.
Dr. Tanzi has hosted several shows on public television, regularly
appears on television news programs, and has testified to Congress
on both Alzheimer’s disease and brain health. About Dr. Raj Dr Raj
is a quadruple board certified physician and associate professor at
the University of Southern California. He was a co-host on the TNT
series Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry, a regular on the TV Show
The Doctors for the past 7 seasons and has a weekly medical segment
on ABC news Los Angeles. Want more Dr. Raj? Check out the Beyond
the Pearls lecture series! The Ultimate High Yield Bundle: The
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Steps 1/2/3, ITE and ABIM Boards. You can also listen to the Beyond
the Pearls podcast. Check out our other shows: Physiology by Physeo
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