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Picower Research & Discoveries
With fractured genomes, Alzheimer’s neurons call for help
A mouse-brain cross section shows a marker of double-stranded breaks in teal and the immune system cytokine Cxcl10 in magenta.
Study indicates that ailing neurons may instigate an inflammatory response from the brain’s microglia immune cells
A new study by researchers in The Picower Institute provides evidence from both mouse models and postmortem human tissue of a direct link between two problems that emerge in Alzheimer’s disease: a buildup of double-stranded breaks (DSBs) in the DNA of neurons and the inflammatory behavior of microglia, the brain’s immune cells. Story continues>>
20th Anniversary
Featured video: 20 Years of Discovery & Impact
Two decades after a transformative gift from The Picower Foundation, this is what drives and sustains our passion to understand the brain in health and disease. And for more about what we've discovered in our first 20 years, visit picower.mit.edu/research/discoveries.
Watch: 20th Anniversary Exhibition
If you missed our 20th Anniversary Exhibition on Sept. 22 or you just want to revisit a favorite moment, check out our YouTube playlist featuring (almost) all the talks by faculty, trainees and alumni.
Picower People
Bear elected member of National Academy of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine announced Oct. 17 that its members have elected Mark Bear, Picower Professor of Neuroscience to join their esteemed ranks. The academy recognized Mark Bear’s influential fundamental research on how experience shapes the brain and its relevance to neurodevelopmental diseases. Story continues>>
Building a bridge between neuroscience and immunology
Picower Institute faculty member Gloria Choi studies how the immune system influences neurological development and social behavior. Photo by M. Scott Brauer
Gloria Choi’s studies of how the immune system and nervous system influence each other could yield new approaches to treating neurological disorders.
“Understanding the flow of information between the immune system and the nervous system can help us to understand why neurological conditions arise, and will help us to devise therapies that no one has thought about before. It will be a completely novel toolkit that we can use to think about treating neurological disorders,” says Choi, an Associate Professor in The Picower Institute. Story continues>>
Sharing Alzheimer's knowledge earns 'Open Data' prize
Djuna von Maydell (center) receives an Open Data prize from MIT Libraries Director Chris Bourg (left) as Brain and Cognitive Sciences Professor Rebecca Saxe looks on from the podium.
Djuna von Maydell, a graduate student in the lab of Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai earned one of MIT's inaugural "Open Data" prizes for making freely available the first database of gene expression in multiple types of brain cells in people who have the Alzheimer's risk gene variant APOE4. Maydell received the award at the Hayden Library Oct. 28.
"We asked the question of how this APOE4 variant might be affecting individual cells," said von Maydell who worked with colleagues Leyla Akay, Joel Blanchard and Jose Davila-Velderrain. "But there are many other questions that could be asked." That was just one of the reasons she cited for making the data freely available. Doing so also honors the brain tissue donors who made their gifts to advance science, and making the data free empowers labs that can't afford to build analogous datasets. More about the prizes>>
A “golden era” to study the brain
Picower Institute doctoral student Mitch Murdock uses new technology and fundamental biological techniques to study the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease on the brain. Photo by Steph Stevens.
“We can’t think of the brain only as neurons,” says PhD student Mitch Murdock, who explores the cellular basis of Alzheimer’s disease.
As an undergraduate, Mitch Murdock was a rare science-humanities double major, specializing in both English and molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale University. Today, as a doctoral student in the lab of Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai, he sees obvious ways that his English education expanded his horizons as a neuroscientist Story continues>>
Following new pathways for neuroscience research and education
Payton Dupuis participated in the Bernard S. and Sophie G. Gould MIT Summer Research Program in Biology, researching neuronal activity in fruit flies in The Picower Institute lab of Menicon Professor Troy Littleton. Photo by Steph Stevens.
Payton Dupuis finds new scientific interests and career opportunities through MIT summer research program in biology.
Payton Dupuis’s interest in biology research began where it does for many future scientists — witnessing a relative struggling with an incurable medical condition. For Dupuis, that family member was her uncle, who suffered from complications from diabetes. Dupuis, a senior at Montana State University, says that diabetes is prominent on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, where she grew up. That passion has taken Dupuis around the country to participate in various summer research programs in the biomedical sciences. She says her experience in The Picower Institute this summer has sold her on pursuing graduate work in brain sciences. Story continues>>
Recent Events
Symposium examines intersecting biology of neurodegeneration, Down syndrome
Cross-cutting examples of disease pathology, cellular breakdowns highlight joint conference of MIT’s Aging Brain Initiative and Alana Down Syndrome Center
Neuroscientists still have a tremendous amount to learn about the causes and courses of neurodegenerative diseases and Down syndrome, but as speakers at the Oct. 5-6 MIT symposium “Glial and Neuronal Biology of the Aging Brain” pointed out, often when they make a new discovery in the context of one such condition, it teaches them something relevant to others. Story continues>>
In the media
Upcoming Events
A note about events: Amid the ongoing uncertainties imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, our event schedule and details of each event are subject to change. Please check associated links frequently in advance of events that interest you.
Save the Date May 11: Early Life Stress & Mental Health
Abuse, neglect, trauma or other adverse experiences during childhood can lead to lifelong struggles including with mental health. Fortunately research also indicates that solutions and interventions at various stages of life can be developed to help and to promote resilience. Please plan to Join us on May 11, 2023 to hear from leading speakers about various ways people are working to help.
