Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Mehdi Jorfi, Ph.D.

Instructor in Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Dr. Mehdi Jorfi completed his Ph.D. in Neural Engineering at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his Ph.D., he executed a multi-institutional experimental research program on developing biologically-inspired mechanically-dynamic intracortical microelectrodes for neural interfacing. This work derived fundamental insights into our understating of the multifaceted role that neuroinflammation may play in disrupting both biologic and abiologic components of the overall neural interface circuit. Dr. Jorfi was awarded the Faculty Science Prize for the best Ph.D. dissertation in Experimental Sciences. He then moved to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow, where he worked on creating “human physiome on a chip” platform to integrate ten micro-organs to analyze human cellular responses to inflammatory cues and apply them for therapeutic interventions. In 2016, he pursued postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School with interest in integrating neurobiology and engineering disciplines to address high-impact problems in neuroscience and medicine. Dr. Jorfi joined the faculty at the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2019 with a joint appointment at the Massachusetts General Center for Engineering in Medicine & Surgery.

Dr. Jorfi’s current research involves two main thrusts: i) Developing new tools to interrogate the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease using microphysiological systems that can closely emulate pathogenic events in the brain. ii) Identifying novel peripheral blood markers from leukocytes and erythrocytes to facilitate diagnosis and prognosis in Alzheimer’s disease patients.

 

 

Related Research:

Role of CD8+ T Cell–Glial Interactions in Mediating Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis Mehdi Jorfi Joseph Park Rudy Tanzi 2023-09-19 Development of a Multicellular Brain Model to Study Brain-Vascular-Peripheral Immune Cells Crosstalk in Alzheimer’s Disease Mehdi Jorfi Joseph Park Rudy Tanzi 2022-02-17

Funded Research

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

Project Description Researchers Funding
Role of CD8+ T Cell–Glial Interactions in Mediating Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis 2023, 2024, 2025

$406,525
Development of a Multicellular Brain Model to Study Brain-Vascular-Peripheral Immune Cells Crosstalk in Alzheimer’s Disease 2021, 2022

$345,000

Selected Publications

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

Navalpur Shanmugam, N. K., Zamudio, F., Vijaya Kumar, D. K., Barrett, K. A., VanDoren, R., Chen, M., Barr, O. M., Watson, S., Lin, C. J., Eimer, W. A., Jorfi, M., Choi, S. H., Moir, R. D., & Tanzi, R. E. Acute experimental colitis in 5xFAD Alzheimer’s disease mice leads to enhanced monocyte infiltration into the brain accompanied by reduced β-amyloid deposition, Alzheimer's & Dementia, June 2, 2025, Read More

Naderi Yeganeh, P., Kwak, S. S., Jorfi, M., Koler, K., Kalatturu, T., von Maydell, D., Liu, Z., Guo, K., Choi, Y., Park, J., Abarca, N., Bakiasi, G., Cetinbas, M., Sadreyev, R., Griciuc, A., Quinti, L., Choi, S. H., Xia, W., Tanzi, R. E., Hide, W., Kim, D. Y. Integrative pathway analysis across humans and 3D cellular models identifies the p38 MAPK-MK2 axis as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease, Neuron, November 27, 2024, Read More

Lin, C., Tian, Y., Tanzi, R. E., & Jorfi, M. Approaches for studying neuroimmune interactions in Alzheimer’s disease, Trends in Immunology, November 12, 2024, Read More

Pavlou, G., Spitz, S., Pramotton, F. M., Tsai, A., Li, B. M., Wang, X., Barr, O. M., Ko, E. C., Zhang, S., Ashley, S. J., Maaser-Hecker, A., Choi, S. H., Jorfi, M., Tanzi, R. E., & Kamm, R. D. Engineered 3D human neurovascular model of Alzheimer’s disease to study vascular dysfunction, Biomaterials, September 28, 2024, Read More

Hall, C. K., Barr, O. M., Delamare, A., Burkholder, A., Tsai, A., Tian, Y., Felix E Ellett, Li, B. M., Tanzi, R. E., & Jorfi, M. Profiling migration of human monocytes in response to chemotactic and barotactic guidance cues, Cell Reports Methods, September 16, 2024, Read More

Ning, S., & Jorfi, M. Beyond the sleep-amyloid interactions in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis, Journal of Neurophysiology, March 13, 2019, Read More

von Maydell, D., & Jorfi, M. The interplay between microglial states and major risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease through the eyes of single-cell RNA sequencing: beyond black and white, Journal of Neurophysiology, August 31, 2019, Read More

Jorfi, M., D'Avanzo, C., Kim, D. Y., & Irimia, D. Three-Dimensional Models of the Human Brain Development and Disease, Advanced Healthcare Materials, August 28, 2017, Read More

Ko, E. C., Spitz, S., Pramotton, F. M., Barr, O. M., Xu, C., Pavlou, G., Zhang, S., Tsai, A., Maaser-Hecker, A., Jorfi, M., Choi, S. H., Tanzi, R. E., & Kamm, R. D. Accelerating the in vitro emulation of Alzheimer’s disease-associated phenotypes using a novel 3D blood-brain barrier neurosphere co-culture model, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, October 9, 2023, Read More

Jorfi, M., Park, J., Hall, C. K., Lin, C. J., Chen, M., von Maydell, D., Kruskop, J. M., Kang, B., Choi, Y., Prokopenko, D., Irimia, D., Kim, D. Y., & Tanzi, R. E. Infiltrating CD8+ T cells exacerbate Alzheimer’s disease pathology in a 3D human neuroimmune axis model, Nature Neuroscience, August 24, 2023, Read More

Jorfi, M., Maaser-Hecker, A., & Tanzi, R. E. The neuroimmune axis of Alzheimer’s disease, Genome Medicine, January 26, 2023, Read More

Ning, S., Jorfi, M., Patel, S. R., Kim, D. Y., & Tanzi, R. E. Neurotechnological Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontiers in Neuroscience, March 24, 2022, Read More

Lotlikar, M. S., Tarantino, M. B., Jorfi, M., Kovacs, D. M., Tanzi, R. E., & Bhattacharyya, R. Microfluidic separation of axonal and somal compartments of neural progenitor cells differentiated in a 3D matrix, STAR Protocols, January 7, 2022, Read More

Kim, J. J., Jorfi, M., Tanzi, R. E., Kim, D. Y., Doyle, P. S., & Irimia, D. Patterning of interconnected human brain spheroids, Lab on a Chip, September 14, 2021, Read More

McAlpine, C. S., Park, J., Griciuc, A., Kim, E., Choi, S. H., Iwamoto, Y., Kiss, M. G., Christie, K. A., Vinegoni, C., Poller, W. C., Mindur, J. E., Chan, C. T., He, S., Janssen, H., Wong, L. P., Downey, J., Singh, S., Anzai, A., Kahles, F., Jorfi, M., Feruglio, P.F., Sadreyev, R. I., Weissleder, R., Kleinstiver, B. P., Nahrendorf, M., Tanzi, R. E., & Swirski, F. K. Astrocytic interleukin-3 programs microglia and limits Alzheimer’s disease, Nature, July 14, 2021, Read More

Bhattacharyya, R., Black, S. E., Lotlikar, M. S., Fenn, R. H., Jorfi, M., Kovacs, D. M., & Tanzi, R. E. Axonal generation of amyloid-β from palmitoylated APP in mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes, Cell Reports, May 18, 2021, Read More

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