Gallego-Perez awarded $250,000 from the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation

Congratulations to Assistant professor Daniel Gallego-Perez and Post Doc. Researcher Diego Alzate-Correa who have received an award of $250,000 for 2 years from the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation for their proposed research. 

The study is aimed at developing novel therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by harnessing the power of skin-derived stem cells.  The goal is to generate autologous brain-like tissue from skin stem cells, which are inherently replenishable, as an unlimited source of neuronal tissue to treat AD.  AD is the most common form of dementia currently affecting more than 5.8 million Americans, and expected to affect around 13.8 million by 2050. Accumulating evidence establishes a causal relationship between AD and the formation of brain lesions (e.g., plaques and tangles) that negatively impact neurons and interfere with neuronal connections (synapses). Eventually, a profuse loss of synapses and neurons is correlated with a decline in mental abilities. Currently, there is no effective treatment against AD. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new therapies to prevent, delay or reverse the symptoms of AD.