Associate Professor of Neuropathology and Consultant Neuropathologist, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Finland
Liisa Myllykangas is neuropathologist studying tissue-level and genetic changes associated with neurodegenerative diseases, with the aim of revealing the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease in human patients, and developing novel treatment or prevention options in the future.
In a project funded by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, Dr. Myllykangas’ lab specifically focuses on neuroinflammation mechanisms in human patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in order to understand its causes. Neuroinflammation has been found to be a key player in Alzheimer’s disease, but the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated.
“Brain diseases are often longstanding, holistic and particularly devastating diseases, affecting not only the patient but also the loved ones. Alzheimer’s disease is very common, thus influencing a very large number of people worldwide, and clearly is one of the diseases where most research and effort need to be focused in order to find effective treatments.
“The support from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has enabled us to establish this interesting collaboration project with the Lehtinen group. We are able to perform extensive immunohistochemical stainings using tissue samples of human Alzheimer’s disease patients and controls, and to combine our results with the data of mouse models generated in the Lehtinen lab.”