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education

Understanding Alzheimer’s disease

Explore how scientists study Alzheimer’s disease using transcriptomics and immunolabeling

resource type / 
Lesson(s)
topic / 
neuroscience
published / March 2, 2026
audience / 
Undergraduate
Cross-section of human brain showing cerebral hemispheres and internal structures on black background
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contributors

Madison Meuler
Education and Engagement Specialist II
Kaitlyn Casimo
Manager, Education & Engagement

‍About this lesson:

hand drawn sketch of a human brain with text that says "would you donate your brain to science?" by Maddy Meuler/ Allen Institute

This collection of four lessons walks students through how scientists work with donated brain tissue to study how the healthy human brain differs from a brain with Alzheimer’s neuropathology. Throughout these lessons, students are asked to consider both the social and biological contexts of Alzheimer’s disease while looking at data from single brain cells about which genes they are or are not expressing relative to their cellular neighbors in the brain. Students are also guided through an interactive image dataset of immunolabeled brain tissue, allowing students to compare the presence and/or absence of biological hallmarks thought to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

‍

Materials

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Each lesson contains a student worksheet and an instructor guide.  

  • Lesson 1: Brain donation & bioethics
  • Lesson 2: Importance of basic research in brain science
  • Lesson 3: Societal and biological perspectives on Alzheimer’s Disease  
  • Lesson 4: Analyzing transcriptomic data to explore Alzheimer’s Disease pathology

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