Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Terrence Town, Ph.D.

Dr. Town received his Ph.D. in neuroscience with distinction from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, in 2002. He then completed post-doctoral work and a junior faculty position at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Immunobiology, Yale University in 2008. That same year, he was appointed associate professor at both Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was the inaugural holder of the Ben Winters Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine from 2008–2013. 

Dr. Town was promoted to full professor in 2013 and relocated to the University of Southern California that same year. He has received several prestigious career awards, including the Julie Martin Mid-career Award in Aging Research from the American Federation for Aging Research/Ellison Medical Foundation and the Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer’s Association. 

The unifying theme of Dr. Town’s work is that the Alzheimer brain overcompensates to pro-inflammatory signals by trying to shut down the innate immune system, and that “rebalancing” innate immunity is the way forward to an Alzheimer therapy. Specifically, his approach is to inhibit suppressors of innate immunity to promote amyloid clearance and restore cognitive function.  

Related Research:

Targeting Beneficial Innate Immunity in Alzheimer’s by IRAK-M Deletion Terrence Town 2015-11-04

Funded Research

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

Project Description Researchers Funding
Targeting Beneficial Innate Immunity in Alzheimer’s by IRAK-M Deletion 2015, 2016

$300,000

Selected Publications

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

Mori, T., Koyama, N., Tan, J., Segawa, T., Maeda, M., & Town, T. Combined treatment with phenolics (-)-epigallocatecin-3 gallate and ferulic acid improves cognition and reduces Alzhiemer-like pathology in mice, Journal of Biological Chemistry, December 18, 2018, Read More

Mori, T., Koyama, N., Yokoo, T., Segawa, T., Maeda, M., Sawmiller, D., Tan, J., & Town, T. Gallic Acid is a Dual α/β-Secretase Modulator that Reverses Cognitive Impairment and Remediates Pathology in Alzheimer Mice, Journal of Biological Chemistry, September 10, 2020, Read More

Guillot-Sestier, M. V., & Town, T. Let’s make microglia great again in neurodegenerative disorders, Journal of Neural Transmission, October 12, 2017, Read More

Haghani, A., Cacciottolo, M., Doty, K. R., D'Agostino, C., Thorwald, M., Safi, N., Levine, M. E., Sioutas, C., Town, T. C., Forman, H. J., Zhang, H., Morgan, T. E., & Finch, C. E. Mouse Brain Transcriptome Responses to Inhaled Nanoparticulate Matter Differed by Sex and APOE in Nrf2-Nfkb Interactions, eLife, June 24, 2020, Read More

Andreasson, K. I., Bachstetter, A. D., Colonna, M., Ginhoux, F., Holmes, C., Lamb, B., Landreth, G., Lee, D. C., Low, ... Town, T., … Colonna, M. , ... Van Eldik, L. J. Targeting innate immunity for neurodegenerative disorders of the central nervous system., Journal of Neurochemistry, September 1, 2016, Read More

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