Mireia Seuma, Benedetta Bolognesi Lab
Dementia is a leading cause of death. Rare forms of dementia are inherited in families and are caused by changes in genes. One of these genes also encodes the peptide that forms clumps in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
We have developed a new method to identify all the changes in this gene that cause clumps to form faster or slower.
This has helped us understand the causes of dementia but also to build a reference ‘map´ to predict who will develop dementia and why. It also allowed us to study for the first time distinct types of changes in this gene, such as changes where a part of the gene is missing or where a new part is added and that have been underlooked so far. Finally, this strategy gave us an unprecedented view of the mechanism leading to the formation of clumps, providing the basis to develop better targeted therapies to prevent or slow down dementia.
