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The Science of Alzheimer’s: Brain Awareness Week 2023

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Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia and leads to devastating cognitive and neurological deficits. However, despite affecting an estimated 6.2 million adults in the US alone, its causes are poorly understood, and no effective treatments exist to halt or reverse the neuron death caused by the disease. How the disease starts — and what happens in single cells and different cell types across the brain as the disease progresses — is similarly unknown.

The Seattle Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Cell Atlas (SEA-AD) consortium is a research collaboration headquartered at the Allen Institute, with additional research projects at UW Medicine and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. These researchers are investigating the foundational science of Alzheimer’s – what happens in different brain regions, in individual cells, and across different types of brain cells in this disease, ultimately hoping to pinpoint the disease’s causes and new targets for better therapies.

At this seminar, learn about the challenges physicians face in treating Alzheimer’s disease, what happens to the brain as the disease progresses, and current research on neuropathology and cell types in health and disease.

Mar 14, 2023

Allen Institute

Time

4:00PM PT

Audience

General public, High School, Students, Teachers, Undergraduate

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About This Event

Join us on YouTube

This free event is geared toward members of the general public who are interested in learning more about Alzheimer’s disease, different kinds of brain cells, and current research in both areas. The presenters will not assume any prior knowledge of the neuroscience of Alzheimer’s or brain cells.

Hybrid event: In person at the Allen Institute, live on Zoom, and live and recorded on Youtube.

Space is limited for in-person attendance. Pre-registration is now closed but a limited amount of walk-in space is available. Virtual walk-in attendance is also available to watch online.

Agenda:

  • Doors open: 3:30pm
  • Seminar with Q&A: 4-5pm
  • Reception with speakers and other neuroscientists: 5-6pm

Speakers

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Jeanelle Ariza Torres

Jeanelle Ariza Torres

Jeanelle Ariza Torres, a Research Scientist at the UW Medicine Biorepository and Integrated Research (BRaIN) laboratory led by C. Dirk Keene, MD, PhD, is working to perform and support research to understand normal brain anatomy and function and how this changes in injury and disease, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and others. Jeanelle leads the neuropathology quantification from image scanning, image storage and digital image effort using HALO software. Jeanelle earned her Biology degree, from the University Francisco Jose de Caldas in Bogotá Colombia and completed her post-bachelor studies in Forensic Anthropology from the University Nacional de Colombia. She has been working for 20 years in brain histology in several neuroscience laboratories beginning at the Military University in Colombia and then in the US with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis. For the past three years she has been working with the BRaIN laboratory at the University of Washington.
Kimiko Domoto-Reilly

Kimiko Domoto-Reilly, MD

Kimiko Domoto-Reilly is a neurologist in the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, where she diagnoses and treats people with neurodegenerative dementias. She has expertise in atypical dementias, including frontotemporal degeneration spectrum disorders. She completed behavioral neurology fellowship training at Mass General Brigham in Boston, senior neuropsychiatry fellowship at MGH, and obtained a Master’s degree with a research focus on structural MR imaging in frontotemporal dementia. In collaboration with UW Alzheimer's Disease Research Center researchers, she studies autosomal dominantly-inherited neurodegenerative diseases, in order to better understand the factors influencing variation in age of onset, genetic penetrance, and disease progression.
Caitlin Latimer

Caitlin Latimer, MD, PhD

Caitlin Latimer is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neuropathology and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington and co-leader of the Neuropathology core for the UW Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. She completed her M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky prior to her residency in Anatomic Pathology and fellowship in Neuropathology at the University of Washington. Her research interests as a physician-scientist include investigating the underlying mechanisms of age-related neurodegenerative disease processes, particularly how multiple pathologic proteins may synergize to promote cognitive dysfunction with age.
Kyle Travaglini

Kyle Travaglini, PhD

Kyle Travaglini is a Scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. As a member of the Human Cell Types program, Kyle is focused on characterizing the molecular and cellular changes that underpin Alzheimer’s disease. Previously, he completed a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Stanford University, where he constructed a single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the human lung under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Krasnow. Prior to that, he conducted research with Dr. Steven Clark at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a B.S. in Biochemistry and identified a mechanism in yeast that helps ensure their proteins are built correctly.
Victoria Rachleff

Victoria Rachleff, PhD candidate

Victoria is a Molecular & Cellular Biology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, advised by Dr. Dirk Keene and Dr. Ed Lein. She uses postmortem human brains to study Alzheimer’s disease and is interested in the early molecular changes that indicate which cell types might be vulnerable to disease. Prior to her Ph.D., Victoria completed an M.S. in Dr. Theo Palmer’s lab at Stanford University and B.A. in Dr. Guy Rouleau’s lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

Science Programs at Allen Institute