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Jeffrey Savas, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Neurology, Pharmacology, Medicine; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Jeffrey Savas received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from New York University School and performed his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. The Savas Lab opened at Northwestern University in February of 2015. The goal of its research is to advance the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for synaptic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Savas aims to understand how altered protein degradation pathways contribute to neurodegeneration and impair neuronal function and cognition. He is particularly interested in determining how perturbed protein degradation pathways cause synapses collapse in AD. To achieve these goals, his lab uses biochemistry and chemical biology with mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis.

Lab website: http://www.savaslab.com/

 

Related Research:

Interrogating Levetiracetam’s Impact on Amyloid Pathology and Presynaptic Proteostasis in Knock-In Mouse Models with Humanized Amyloid Beta Jeffrey Savas 2022-02-15 The Role of Impaired Synaptic Vesicle Machinery Proteostasis in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis Jeffrey Savas 2018-12-24

Funded Research

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

Project Description Researchers Funding
Interrogating Levetiracetam’s Impact on Amyloid Pathology and Presynaptic Proteostasis in Knock-In Mouse Models with Humanized Amyloid Beta 2021, 2023

$301,141
The Role of Impaired Synaptic Vesicle Machinery Proteostasis in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis 2018-2019

$287,500

Selected Publications

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

Wood, J. I., Dulewicz, M., Szadziewska, A., Weiner, S., Ge, J., Stringer, K., Desai, S., Fenson, L., Piotrowska, D., Brinkmalm, G., Koutarapu, S., Hajar, H. B., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Cummings, D. M., Savas, J. N., Edwards, F. A., & Hanrieder, J. Isotope-encoded spatial biology identifies plaque-age-dependent maturation and synaptic loss in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, Nature Communications, September 1, 2025, Read More

Koutarapu, S., Ge, J., Dulewicz, M., Srikrishna, M., Szadziewska, A., Wood, J., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Michno, W., Ryan, N. S., Lashley, T., Savas, J. N., Schöll, M., & Hanrieder, J. Chemical imaging delineates Aβ plaque polymorphism across the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum, Nature Communications, April 24, 2025, Read More

Upadhyay, A., Chhangani, D., Rao, N. R., Kofler, J., Vassar, R., Rincon-Limas, D. E., & Savas, J. N. Amyloid fibril proteomics of AD brains reveals modifiers of aggregation and toxicity, Molecular Neurodegeneration, September 14, 2023, Read More

Hark, T. J., Rao, N. R., Castillon, C., Basta, T., Smukowski, S., Bao, H., Upadhyay, A., Bomba-Warczak, E., Nomura, T., O'Toole, E. T., Morgan, G. P., Ali, L., Saito, T., Guillermier, C., Saido, T. C., Steinhauser, M. L., Stowell, M. H. B., Chapman, E. R., Contractor, A., & Savas, J. N. Pulse-Chase Proteomics of the App Knockin Mouse Models of Alzheimer’s Disease Reveals that Synaptic Dysfunction Originates in Presynaptic Terminals, Cell Systems, December 15, 2020, Read More

Hark, T. J., & Savas, J. N. Using stable isotope labeling to advance our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease etiology and pathology, Journal of Neurochemistry, February 2, 2021, Read More

Rao, N. R., & Savas, J. N. Levetiracetam Treatment Normalizes Levels of Presynaptic Endocytosis Machinery and Restores Nonamyloidogenic APP Processing in App Knock-in Mice, Journal of Proteome Research, June 9, 2021, Read More

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