Dr. van der Kant, group leader of the Dementia Discovery Group at the CNCR, has received a $500.000 award to study how lipids contribute to primary Tauopathies such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
PSP and FTDs are part of a class of debilitating neurodegenerative diseases that may shorten a person’s lifespan, and for which no current treatments exist. The research program by van der Kant, is one out of four groundbreaking research projects funded through the Tauopathy Challenge Workshop, that will serve as building blocks toward ongoing efforts to find treatments and a cure for these diseases, known as primary tauopathies.
Work in the van der Kant lab focuses on examining how cholesterol, or other lipids, contribute to the tau pathology in PSP and FTD, knowing that recent studies have shown that excess levels of cholesterol in the brain can drive the build-up of tau. Dr. van der Kant will map how lipid metabolism in different iPSC-derived brain cell types is altered in these diseases, and how this might contribute to neuroinflammation. The project will help provide a better understanding of the early processes that drive PSP and FTDs.
Funding is awarded through the 2024 Tauopathy challenge workshop, which was held to close gaps in understanding and address current research challenges in primary tauopathies, such as Frontotemporal Dementias and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Funding was made available through the Rainwater Charitable Foundation in collaboration with the Aging Mind Foundation and the CurePSP foundation.
More information can be found here: https://rainwatercharitablefoundation.org/the-rainwater-charitable-foundation-curepsp-and-aging-mind-foundation-announce-2-million-in-grants-to-fund-innovative-research-projects-from-the-tauopathy-challenge-workshop/