We seek to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders. A major barrier has been the lack of accurate animal models for tau pathology in AD. Pathological tau aggregates are toxic to neurons, and our work shows that these aggregates are not static—they move between cells and act as precise templates for their own replication. The three-dimensional structure of each aggregate determines the resulting neuropathology. We have leveraged these insights to create cell models that rapidly define tau structure. We now aim to develop animal models that replicate human tau structures by inoculating pathological tau into the brains of mice expressing human tau and assessing whether authentic structures form. These models will enable faster development of accurate diagnostics and therapeutics for Alzheimer’s and related diseases.
