Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc.

Frank P. Smith Professor of Neurosurgery; Co-Director, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester; Professor of Glial Cell Biology; Co-Director, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Dr. Nedergaard is Professor of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) in Rochester, NY. She is also Professor of Glial Cell Biology and Co-Director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her multiple interests range from basic research on neuron-glia interactions to their role in aging, small vessel disease, seizure disorders, and cerebral blood flow. Forefront amongst her discovery is the identification of the glymphatic system, a brain equivalent of the lymphatic system within which cerebrospinal fluid diffuses rapidly and mixes with interstitial fluids, thereby filtering metabolic byproducts that accumulate due to neuronal activity. Most recently, she published a landmark study in Science showing that the glymphatic system dramatically expands during sleep compared to waking—brain cleaning and detoxification are thus greatly facilitated during sleep, providing a novel and direct explanation for what we all generally consider sleep’s restorative effect.

Related Research:

Brain Entry and Exit Consortium: Does Subarachnoid Lymphatic-Like Membrane (SLYM) Failure Compromise Glymphatic Clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease? Maiken Nedergaard 2024-05-02 Will Restoration of Normal Glymphatic Function Slow Progression of Cognitive Decline and Amyloid Plaques in a Murine Alzheimer Model? Maiken Nedergaard 2016-07-05

Funded Research

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

Project Description Researchers Funding
Brain Entry and Exit Consortium: Does Subarachnoid Lymphatic-Like Membrane (SLYM) Failure Compromise Glymphatic Clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease? 2024

$287,500
Will Restoration of Normal Glymphatic Function Slow Progression of Cognitive Decline and Amyloid Plaques in a Murine Alzheimer Model? 2016, 2017

$300,000

Selected Publications

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

Mortensen, K. N., Lilius, T., Rosenholm, M., Sigurðsson, B., Kelley, D. H., & Nedergaard, M. Perivascular cerebrospinal fluid inflow matches interstitial fluid efflux in anesthetized rats, iScience, March, 30, 2025, Read More

Lüthi, A., & Nedergaard, M. Anything but small: Microarousals stand at the crossroad between noradrenaline signaling and key sleep functions, Neuron, January 13, 2025, Read More

Hauglund, N. L., Andersen, M., Tokarska, K., Radovanovic, T., Kjaerby, C., Sørensen, F. L., Bojarowska, Z., Untiet, V., Ballestero, S. B., Kolmos, M. G., Weikop, P., Hirase, H., & Nedergaard, M. Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep, Cell, January 8, 2025, Read More

Li, B., Sun, Q., Ding, F., Xu, Q., Kang, N., Xue, Y., Ladron-de-Guevara, A., Hirase, H., Weikop, P., Gong, S., Smith, N., & Nedergaard, M. Anti-seizure effects of norepinephrine-induced free fatty acid release, Cell Metabolism, January 7, 2025, Read More

Cankar, N., Beschorner, N., Tsopanidou, A., Qvist, F. L., Colaço, A. R., Andersen, M., Kjaerby, C., Delle, C., Lambert, M., Mundt, F., Weikop, P., Jucker, M., Mann, M., Skotte, N. H., & Nedergaard, M. Sleep deprivation leads to non-adaptive alterations in sleep microarchitecture and amyloid-β accumulation in a murine Alzheimer model, Cell Reports, November 13, 2024, Read More

Li, B., Sun, Q., Ding, F., Xu, Q., Kang, N., Xue, Y., Ladron-de-Guevara, A., Hirase, H., Weikop, P., Gong, S., Nathan, S., & Nedergaard, M. Anti-seizure effects of norepinephrine-induced free fatty acid release, Cell Metabolism, October 29, 2024, Read More

Delle, C., Wang, X., & Nedergaard, M. The Ocular Glymphatic System-Current Understanding and Future Perspectives, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, May 24, 2024, Read More

Wang, X., Delle, C., Peng, W., Plá, V., Giannetto, M., Kusk, P., Sigurdsson, B., Sakurai, S., Sweeney, A., Sun, Q., Du, T., Libby, R. T., & Nedergaard, M. Age- and glaucoma-induced changes to the ocular glymphatic system, Neurobiology of Disease, October 12, 2023, Read More

Wang, X., Lou, N., Eberhardt, A., Yang, Y., Kusk, P., Xu, Q., Förstera, B., Peng, S., Shi, M., Ladrón-de-Guevara, A., Delle, C., Sigurdsson, B., Xavier, A. L. R., Ertürk, A., Libby, R. T., Chen, L., Thrane, A. S., & Nedergaard, M. An Ocular Glymphatic Clearance System Removes β-Amyloid From the Rodent Eye, Science Translational Medicine, March 25, 2020, Read More

Rasmussen, M. K., Mestre, H., & Nedergaard, M. The glymphatic pathway in neurological disorders, The Lancet Neurology, November 1, 2018, Read More

Sweeney, M. D., Montagne, A., Sagare, A. P., Nation, D. A., Schneider, L. S., Chui, H. C., Harrington, M. G., Pa, J., Law, M., Wang, D. J. J., Jacobs, R. E., Doubal, F. N., Ramirez, J., Black, S. E., Nedergaard, M., Benveniste, H., Dichgans, M., Iadecola, C., Love, S., Bath, P. M., … Zlokovic, B. V. Vascular dysfunction — The disregarded partner of Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer's & Dementia, January 1, 2019, Read More

Grutzendler, J., & Nedergaard, M. Cellular Control of Brain Capillary Blood Flow: In vivo imaging veritas, Trends in Neurosciences, June 26, 2019, Read More

Back to Our Researchers