Summary

ER-Mitochondrial interactions in familial Alzheimer's disease

Project Details

We have discovered that presenilin-1, a protein that, when mutated, causes familial (i.e. inherited) Alzheimer disease, is located in a specialized compartment of the cell, called endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria-associated membranes (ER-MAM). This novel finding suggests a new mechanism by which the disease arises. We propose a number of experiments aimed at understanding the role of ER-MAM in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease.