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Tony Wyss-Coray, Ph.D.

D.H. Chen Endowed Professor; Professor, Neurology and Neurological Science, Stanford University

Tony Wyss-Coray is a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University, the co-director of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the associate director of the Center for Tissue Regeneration, Repair and Restoration at the Palo Alto VA. His lab investigates the role of immune responses in brain aging and neurodegeneration with a focus on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. He combines the study of mouse models with human clinical samples using cytomic, proteomic and bioinformatics tools. His most recent studies show that systemic circulatory factors can modulate neurogenesis, neuroinflammation and cognitive function in mice and that blood-derived factors from young mice or humans can rejuvenate the aging mouse brain.

The Wyss-Coray lab is interested in the role of immune responses and inflammation in brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases. As humans get older, many beneficial immune responses decline, while low-level chronic inflammation increases throughout the body. This process, which has been dubbed “inflammaging,” likely contributes to brain dysfunction associated with aging. Indeed, recent studies from our laboratory have shown that in artificially induced “Siamese” mice, which share a common circulatory system through parabiosis, the blood of old mice is sufficient to induce degenerative changes in the brains of young mice and reduce their memory function. The lab has isolated blood factors with known functions in the immune system that are responsible for some of these detrimental effects. By targeting and neutralizing such factors during normal aging or in models of neurodegeneration, we are exploring new therapeutic strategies. Conversely, in the same model of parabiosis, old mice benefit from exposure to a young circulatory system: old brains show signs of rejuvenation, including increased levels of neurogenesis in a brain region involved in memory formation, reduced neuroinflammation and activation of genes involved in memory function and cellular remodeling. Moreover, blood plasma harvested from young mice or young humans is capable of improving memory function in old mice or in mice that model Alzheimer’s disease. The lab now is searching for factors in young blood that mediate these beneficial effects.

Wyss-Coray has received many honors and awards for his work, including the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, 2015; the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, 2015; the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, 2013; and the Veterans Administration Senior Research Career Scientist Award, 2012; he has spoken at Google Zeitgeist, Global TED and the World Economic Forum.

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Related Research:

A Transcriptional Rejuvenation Signature for Alzheimer’s Disease Tony Wyss-Coray 2021-01-29 Rejuvenation of Microglia in Brain Aging and Neurodegeneration Tony Wyss-Coray 2015-10-29

Funded Research

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

Project Description Researchers Funding
A Transcriptional Rejuvenation Signature for Alzheimer’s Disease 2020, 2022

$345,000
Rejuvenation of Microglia in Brain Aging and Neurodegeneration 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019

$645,000

Selected Publications

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

Oh, H. S., Urey, D. Y., Karlsson, L., Zhu, Z., Shen, Y., ... Stevens, B., ... Zetterberg, H., ... Hansson, O., Cruchaga C., & Wyss-Coray, T. A cerebrospinal fluid synaptic protein biomarker for prediction of cognitive resilience versus decline in Alzheimer’s disease, Nature Medicine, March 31, 2025, Read More

Carr, A. J., Hajicek, N., Tsai, A. P., Acharya, P. P., Hardy, P. B., Meyer, E., Wyss-Coray, T., Pearce, K. H., Sondek, J., & Zhang, Q. A high-throughput assay platform to discover small molecule activators of the phospholipase PLC-γ2 to treat Alzheimer’s disease, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, February 25, 2025, Read More

Hahn, O., Foltz, A. G., Atkins, M., Kedir, B., Moran-Losada, P., Guldner, I. H., Munson, C., Kern, F., Pálovics, R., Lu, N., Zhang, H., Kaur, A., Hull, J., Huguenard, J. R., Grönke, S., Lehallier, B., Partridge, L., Keller, A., & Wyss-Coray, T. Atlas of the aging mouse brain reveals white matter as vulnerable foci, Cell, August 8, 2023, Read More

Pluvinage, J. V., Haney, M. S., Smith, B. A. H., Sun, J., Iram, T., Bonanno, L., Li, ... Wyss-Coray, T. CD22 Blockade restores homeostatic microglial phagocytosis in ageing brains, Nature, April 3, 2019, Read More

Gate, D., Saligrama, N., Leventhal, O., Yang, A. C., Unger, … Wyss-Coray, T. Clonally Expanded CD8 T cells patrol the cerebrospinal fluid in Alzheimer’s disease, Nature, January 8, 2020, Read More

Lehallier, B., Gate, D., Schaum, N., Nanasi, T., Lee, S. E., ... Wyss-Coray, T. Undulating changes in human plasma proteome profiles across the lifespan, Nature Medicine, December 5, 2019, Read More

Marschallinger, J., Iram, T., Zardeneta, M., Lee, S. E., ... Wyss-Coray, T. Lipid-droplet accumulating microglia represent a dysfunctional and proinflammatory state in the aging brain, Nature Neuroscience, January 20, 2020, Read More

Gate, D., Tapp, E., Leventhal, O., Shahid, M., ... Wyss-Coray, T. CD4(+) T cells contribute to neurodegeneration in Lewy body dementia, Science, October 14, 2021, Read More

Kaeser, S. A., Lehallier, B., Thinggaard, M., Häsler, L. M., Apel, A., Bergmann, C., Berdnik, D., Jeune, B., Christensen, K., Grönke, S., Partridge, L., Wyss-Coray, T., Mengel-From, J., & Jucker, M. A neuronal blood marker is associated with mortality in old age, Nature Aging, February 11, 2021, Read More

Piehl, N., van Olst, L., Ramakrishnan, A., Teregulova, V., Simonton, B., Zhang, Z., Tapp, E., Channappa, D., Oh, H., Losada, P. M., Rutledge, J., Trelle, A. N., Mormino, E. C., Elahi, F., Galasko, D. R., Henderson, V. W., Wagner, A. D., Wyss-Coray, T., & Gate, D. Cerebrospinal fluid immune dysregulation during healthy brain aging and cognitive impairment, Cell, December 13, 2022, Read More

Paolicelli, R. C., Sierra, A., Stevens, B., et al. Microglia states and nomenclature: A field at its crossroads, Neuron, November 2, 2022, Read More

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