The fight against Alzheimer's disease has taken a bold step forward with an innovative collaboration between FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Mayo Clinic Florida. This groundbreaking partnership aims to develop cutting-edge treatments for a disease that has plagued humanity for far too long.
At the forefront of this research is Professor Yan Li, a renowned expert in chemical and biomedical engineering. With over two decades of experience in stem cell biology and extracellular vesicle therapeutics, Professor Li is leading a team of doctoral students and esteemed researchers from Mayo Clinic.
"The collaboration with Mayo Clinic is a game-changer," Professor Li explains. "Their resources and expertise are invaluable. One of the key advantages is access to patient-derived brain models, which will enable us to evaluate new treatments more effectively, based on real human biology."
In a recent publication in Advanced Healthcare Materials, Professor Li and her colleagues unveiled a more accurate cellular model for brain disease research. By combining brain organoids, which mimic the function of human organs, with immune cells found in the brain, they created a model that closely resembles the human brain's environment.
"Unlike simpler models, our brain organoids include microglia-like immune cells, which are crucial for understanding neurodegenerative diseases," Professor Li adds.
Using this advanced model, the research team examined Alzheimer's disease by exposing the organoids to extracellular vesicles from Alzheimer's patient brain cells. They discovered that healthy immune cells and their extracellular vesicles reduced harmful inflammation and lowered signals associated with harmful proteins found in Alzheimer's patients.
"This study opens up new avenues for understanding neural degeneration and developing extracellular vesicle-based therapies for Alzheimer's disease," Professor Li says.
The results offer a more accurate way to study Alzheimer's and related conditions, and point towards a promising treatment approach that utilizes the brain's own cellular messengers as medicine.
"By harnessing the brain's natural cleanup tools, we can potentially alter the progression of Alzheimer's," Professor Li explains.
But here's where it gets even more exciting: this collaboration offers doctoral students in biomedical engineering a unique opportunity. They get to immerse themselves in a clinical research environment, working alongside physicians and medical doctors at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
Several renowned researchers from Mayo Clinic are contributing to this initiative, including Dr. Takahisa Kanekiyo and Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, who lead the medical side of the effort. Doctoral students Jennifer Berg Sen, Sailesti Joshi, and Falak Syed are working closely with Professor Li on the academic front.
"Witnessing the real-world medical challenges and seeing how our research can make a difference has been incredibly inspiring," says Jennifer Berg Sen.
This collaboration not only provides engineering students with a medical perspective on their research but also gives clinicians access to engineering expertise. It's a win-win situation, offering a unique and valuable learning experience that traditional engineering programs rarely provide.
"I'm excited about the potential of this collaboration and the impact it could have on patient outcomes," says Emily Pritchard, assistant provost and assistant vice president for Academic Affairs Health Innovation and Strategic Alliances.
As this partnership continues to thrive, we can expect more groundbreaking discoveries and a brighter future for those affected by Alzheimer's disease. The work of Professor Li and her team is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in the fight against this devastating disease.
