Ming-Hsuan Ou-Yang, PhD

I was born in Taiwan and grew up there before coming to United State for college. I received my B.S. in biochemistry, summa cum laude from University at Albany, State University of New York. I developed my interests in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly the molecular pathways of disease during my PhD study with William Van Nostrand, PhD, Stony Brook, on the interactions between myelin basic protein and Aβ and amyloid pathogenesis in Alzheimer’s mouse models. In 2014, I joined the lab of Robert Vassar, PhD, at Northwestern University to continue my research on AD by studying the roles of BACE1, another important player in AD with a presence in both the physiological and pathological brain.

"Our brain is such a unique organ that when it’s severely injured, we have a term “brain death” just for it, but we do not have similar terms for other organs. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic fatal disease of brain. With AD, people not only lose the capability to perform day-to day-tasks required for independent living, but are also deprived of their memories, a very important part of being human that we use to define who we are. Thus, for me, the ultimate goal of doing AD research is to develop a treatment to maintain the integrity of our life to the end.

Despite the frustrations we have had, I believe with every failure, we are one step closer to the solution. But no great achievement can be made without support from society at large. I give special thanks to the BrightFocus Foundation and its donors for their recognition and generous endowment to science research. Philanthropy has always been a driving force for scientific discoveries, and the generosity of your support will continue to motivate and inspire our research."