Backgrounds

The demographic aging of Japan’s capital of Tokyo is advancing at an extreme rate, and measures to combat dementia are urgently needed. Basic remedies for dementia conditions that progress gradually such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, or frontotemporal lobar degeneration do not yet exist.

This project aims to promote the analysis of heretofore-unexamined abnormalities in the brain to create test tube, cellular, and animal models to reproduce disease states and develop drugs and treatments that will be able to suppress the progression of disease.

Objectives

• To perform neuropathological and biochemical analysis on post-mortem brain tissue to elucidate molecular pathogenesis
• To create test tube, cellular, and animal models to reproduce patient pathologies and develop drugs and treatments that will be able to suppress the progression of disease
• To elucidate the mechanisms of a propagation hypothesis proposed by the project team

Members

Project Leader Takashi Nonaka

• Genjiro Suzuki
• Naomi Nihonmatsu
• Masami Suzukake
• Yoshiki Takamatsu
• Airi Tarutani
• Shotaro Shimonaka