On Tuesday 16 June at 09:00, Anne Mette Gissel Jensen defends her PhD dissertation entitled “SORL1 in Alzheimer's Disease: Dimerization, Endolysosomal Trafficking, and Therapeutic Potential”.

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common causes of dementia, but many of the cellular changes that drive the disease are still not fully understood. This PhD project investigates how brain cells handle internal transport and recycling of proteins which is a process that plays an important role in Alzheimer’s disease.

The project focuses on an Alzheimer’s-related receptor called SORL1, which helps control how important molecules are moved inside cells. The research shows that SORL1 proteins need to pair up inside small cellular compartments to function properly. When this process is disturbed by Alzheimer’s-linked genetic variants in SORL1, the cell’s transport system is affected, leading to changes that might cause disease development.

As part of the project, a smaller version of SORL1, called a minireceptor, was developed. This minireceptor keeps important functions of the full receptor and can reduce the formation of harmful amyloid-beta peptides, which are closely associated with the deveopment of Alzheimer’s disease. Because the minireceptor is small enough to fit into viral delivery systems, it may have potential for future gene therapy strategies for Alzheimer's disease.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public at takes place in Samfundsmedicinsk auditorium (1262-101), Aarhus University. Please see the press release for more information.

Contact

PhD student Anne Mette Gissel Jensen
Mail: amgj@biomed.au.dk 
Phone: +45 23447098

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