What I am working on...

People are always asking me what I am working on, so I thought I would give everyone a little update. I am currently working on Alzheimer's Disease research in the University of Chicago Hospital Pathology Department. Alzheimer's is caused by a peptide known as Beta Amyloid. Beta Amyloid is a very hydrophobic peptide cleaved from amyloid precursor protein. Because the peptide is very hydrophobic, it aggregates and when it forms a plaque in the brain it blocks neuronal synapses and you have Alzheimer's. There are no empirical tests to see if you have Alzheimer's. In truth, the only conclusive verification is through autopsy. I am synthesizing various forms of the Beta Amyloid peptide so that we can see exactly how it aggregates. If you think of a piece of paper, I am making the paper and we want to watch it crumple. If we can understand the "crumpling" then we might be able to engineer ways to prevent the aggregation, and thus prevent the disease. From a thermodynamic sense it may be impossible to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's without performing a surgery to remove the plaque. That surgery is not currently possible, since the plaque I am talking about is invisible to the naked eye. (I hope you're not eating right now) The plaque is normally separated from the gallimaufry of brain matter through chemical means after the brain tissue has been minced in a blender. Yes, a regular blender. Right now, I am working on replicating a series of mutations* from small family subsets exhibiting really early onset Alzheimer's (~late 30s). Since these mutations produce the aggregates (and thus Alzheimer's) much earlier it is kind of a way of speeding up our research.

*yes, mutations occur in people...some argue that it is the source of all variety and variety is pretty stinking sweet.

-JohnMark
PS Yes, I can openly discuss my research because it is publically funded. I know there were a lot of things I could not mention when I was working in industry.