Research summary
Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people around the world. Along with depriving sufferers of their short-term memory, it strains health-care systems and burdens caregivers. As Canada Research Chair in Neuroimmunology, Dr. Serge Rivest aims to decipher the role that the innate immune system plays in brain diseases like Alzheimer’s in order to find treatments.
He and his research team hope to shed more light on the ability of a subset of circulating monocytes (a type of white blood cell) to clear toxic beta-amyloid protein from the body. Amyloid protein aggregates can build up in the brain over time and cause cognitive decline. Rivest and his team are trying to determine if and how immune cells can be equipped to selectively attack these proteins. Based on the data they have generated over the past seven years, they believe they are well-positioned to develop a new drug to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease.