04/04/2022
By Sokny Long
The Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology program invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Jun Jin on “Amino terminal splice variants of tau in Alzheimer’s disease lesions.”
Ph.D. Candidate: Jun Jin
Defense Date: Thursday, April 14, 2022
Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact jun_jin@student.uml.edu and committee advisor, Garth_Hall@uml.edu, at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.
Research Advisor/Committee Chair: Garth Hall, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Committee Members:
- Jeffrey Moore, Professor and Associate Chair, Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Jennifer Fish, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract:
The increase and spreading of tau associated lesions are thought to be central to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These lesions include neuropil threads (NTs), neuritic plaques (NPs), and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). While it has historically been assumed that splicing variants in tau are unimportant in AD, we have found specific patterns of tau deposition associated with the present/absence of the alternatively spliced amino terminal exons (exons 2/3) in tau. This is of particular interest in light of prior work from our lab correlating the presence of exons 2/3 and the lack of tau secretion. Here, I present a quantitative analysis of these patterns in both AD and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This work suggests that isoform specific tau deposition and associated mechanisms (such as tau secretion) may play a role in the pathogenesis of both AD and CTE.
All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend the online defense via remote access.