Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Ben A. Barres, M.D., Ph.D.

Stanford University
(1954–2017)

In an article published in 2018, The Atlantic described Dr. Ben Barres’s work:
“While most of his fellow neuroscientists studied neurons, the branching cells that carry electrical signals through the brain, Barres focused his attention on another group of cells called glia. Even though they equal neurons in number, glia were long dismissed as the brain’s support crew—there simply to provide nutrients or structural scaffolding. But Barres showed that glia are stars in their own right. They help neurons to mature, producing the connections that are the basis for learning and memory, and then pruning those connections so that the most useful ones remain.”

Dr. Barres forever changed our understanding of the brain. “The intellectual horsepower, innovative turn of mind and humanity Ben brought to some of the world’s seemingly intractable medical mysteries had us all in awe. The world has lost an exceptional human being,” said Tim Armour, President and CEO of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

Related Research:

Understanding Reactive Astrocytes and Their Roles in Alzheimer’s Disease Ben Barres 2015-09-28

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Understanding Reactive Astrocytes and Their Roles in Alzheimer’s Disease 2015-2016

$300,000

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Guttenplan, K. A., Weigel, M. K., Prakash, P., Wijewardhane, P. R., Hasel, P., Rufen-Blanchette, U., Münch, A. E., Blum, J. A., Fine, J., Neal, M. C., Bruce, K. D., Gitler, A. D., Chopra, G., Liddelow, S. A., & Barres, B. A. Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes induce cell death via saturated lipids., Nature, October 6, 2021, Read More

Guttenplan, K. A., Weigel, M. K., Adler, D. I., Couthouis, J., Liddelow, S. A., Gitler, A. D., & Barres, B. A. Knockout of reactive astrocyte activating factors slows disease progression in an ALS mouse model, Nature Communications, July 27, 2020, Read More

Gibson, E. M., Nagaraja, S., Ocampo, A., Tam, L. T., Wood, L. S., Pallegar, P. N., Greene, J. J., Geraghty, A. C., Goldstein, A. K., Ni, L., Woo, P. J., Barres, B. A., Liddelow, S., Vogel, H., & Monje, M. Methotrexate Chemotherapy Induces Persistent Tri-glial Dysregulation that Underlies Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment, Cell, December 6, 2018, Read More

Shi, Y., Yamada, K., Liddelow, S. A., Smith, S. T., Zhao, L., Luo, W., Tsai, R. M., Spina, S., Grinberg, L. T., Rojas, J. C., Gallardo, G., Wang, K., Roh, J., Robinson, G., Finn, M. B., Jiang, H., Sullivan, P. M., Baufeld, C., Wood, M. W., Sutphen, C., McCue, L., Xiong, C., Del-Aquila, J.L., Morris, J.C., Cruchage, C., Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Fagan, A.M., Miller, B.L., Boxer, A.L., Seeley, W.W., Butovsky, O., Barres, B.B., Paul, S.M., & Holtzman, D.M. ApoE4 markedly exacerbates tau-mediated neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy, Nature, September 28, 2017, Read More

Liddelow, S. A., Guttenplan, K. A., Clarke, L. E., Bennett, F. C., Bohlen, C. J., Schirmer, L., Bennett, M. L., Münch, A. E., Chung, W. S., Peterson, T. C., Wilton, D. K., Frouin, A., Napier, B. A., Panicker, N., Kumar, M., Buckwalter, M. S., Rowitch, D. H., Dawson, V. L., Dawson, T. M., Stevens, B., Barres, B. A. Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia, Nature, January 18, 2017, Read More

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