$3.7 Million Awarded from NIA for Alzheimer’s Research
Dr. Freeman and collaborators at OMRF (Drs. Beckstead, Rice, and Sharpe) have received a new award from the National Institute on Aging. This project is examining the role of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in neuroinflammation with aging and Alzheimer’s. Activation of immune processes in the brain with aging and Alzheimer’s may be both an adaptive and deleterious response by the brain to maintain function. These studies over the next five years will examine a variety of modulations of these processes and how they affect cognition, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. Dr. Freeman was on our local news station KOCO talking about the new grant.
National Research Service Award F30 for Dr. Kellogg
Collyn Kellogg, Ph.D. have received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA – F30) Fellowship for M.D./Ph.D. training. His project – ‘Regulation of Microglial Function by Major Histocompatibility Complex I in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease’ will support the completion of his Ph.D. research and M.D. training. Specifically, his project will examine the hypothesis that the increased expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex-I and their receptors is a mechanism through which microglia can signal cell-autonomously to themselves or cell-non-autonomously to other microglia to induce phenotypic switching to a more reactive phenotype. This is one of only five F30 fellowships to be awarded in Oklahoma in the past decade.
VA Pilot Award to Study Traumatic Brain Injury
The OKC VAMC has awarded Dr. Kellogg a VA Pilot Project that examines blast traumatic brain injuries. We have developed a shock tube that uses pressurized air to create a pressure shock wave similar to that which may be experienced by service members in combat. Our methods allow us to vary the intensity to investigate the impact of different injury levels. The funds will support the technician, Hannah Ray, working on the project, as well as some of the mouse colony, RNA isolation, and downstream analysis. We will cause different intensities and frequencies of TBI and follow how long the impacts of blast injury are evident through behavioral studies and RNA, specifically focusing on microglia. Our goal is to elucidate the short term and persistent changes in glial cells following blast traumatic brain injury. We hope this project extends the understanding of the pathophysiology of persistent brain damage following traumatic brain injury and opens avenues for novel interventions that can improve the neuronal landscape post-TBI by modulating the microglial response.