Key Points
- AAIC 2024 was held in Philadelphia from July 28–August 1.
- Researchers from Columbia University presented a talk and a poster.
More than 8,000 members of the Alzheimer’s Association scientific community gathered in Philadelphia – plus an additional 4,000 virtually – for AAIC 2024. The meeting was held from July 28 through August 1, and it is widely attended by clinicians and industry professionals because it has a clinical focus.
The focused ultrasound research group at Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering that is led by Elisa Konofagou, PhD, presented a talk and a poster at the meeting. Rebecca Noel, PhD, Daniella Jimenez, MS, and Amy Shteyman (a third-year medical student at Columbia) all attended AAIC from Dr. Konofagou’s laboratory.
The presentation described some of the group’s preclinical studies on gene expression in the hippocampus after delivering a compound across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with focused ultrasound. In one set of experiments, the focused ultrasound treatment group showed significant improvements in gene expression levels, particularly in pathways related to amyloid beta clearance, metabolism, and neurogenesis, as compared with healthy controls.
“My talk generated significant interest, particularly regarding the effects of amyloid-related-imaging-abnormalities (or ‘ARIA’) in ongoing clinical trials,” said Dr. Noel. “After the session, several members of the audience approached me with questions about focused ultrasound projects and potential collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. Many of the attendees had never heard about focused ultrasound, so it was exciting to be the one to introduce them to our technology!”
“The meeting was exciting, but it was clear that focused ultrasound is novel for the attendees,” added Ms. Jimenez. “So it would be good to have a larger presence from our community in the future.”
“When I learned about Dr. Konofagou,’s research, I could tell it was the future of medicine…so I wanted to be involved,” said Ms. Shteyman. “My poster highlighted my project looking at the effects of focused ultrasound on gene expression in healthy neurons and in neurons from an Alzheimer’s disease model.”
Drug Discovery and Delivery Session Presentation
Preliminary Evidence for the Combined Efficacy of Focused Ultrasound Blood-Brain Barrier Opening and Delivery of a Novel Anti-Amyloid Re Complex for Memory Improvement in a 3xTg-Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model by Rebecca L Noel, MS, Samantha L Gorman, BS, Alec J Batts, MS, Despoina Tsakri, MD, Daniella A Jimenez, MS, Maria Pelecanou, PhD, Marina Sagnou, PhD, and Elisa E Konofagou, PhD from Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, and the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos,” Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
Poster
Characterizing the Effects of Focused Ultrasound Therapy in Healthy and Alzheimer’s Disease Neurons by Amy Shteyman, Rebecca L Noel, MS, and Elisa E Konofagou, PhD, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
The Foundation thanks the Columbia research team for assistance with this meeting report.