Investigator Neurology, Mass General Research Institute

Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School

Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar (2012-2017) Mass General Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital

alzheimer disease; alzheimer's disease; amyloid beta-peptides; amyloid beta-protein precursor; brain cell physiology; brain cells; cerebral amyloid angiopathy; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy; microscopy fluorescence; multiphoton; plaque amyloid; senile plaques

Using the mulitphoton micrsocopy imaging technique, senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease can be detected in the brains of living transgenic mice, and characterized with chronic imaging.

This detection platform was used to characterize a therapeutic approach to clearing the senile plaques based on immunotherapy, as well as to characterize novel amyloid-targeting ligands in preclinical development for PET imaging in humans.

Current research is aimed at optimizing anti-amyloid- therapeutic approaches, and imaging the anatomy and physiology of specific cell types in the brain before and after treatment.

Development of novel optical techniques is ongoing, and includes methods to measure protein-protein interactions using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), and non-invasive approaches to amyloid imaging in intact animals.