First junior research group at the DZNE

30.04.2019 -  

The German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases in the Helmholtz Association (DZNE) Magdeburg has had its first junior research group since March 2019.

The "Multimodal Neuroimaging" group is headed by Dr. Anne Maass, who only returned from her two-and-a-half-year postdoctoral period in Berkeley last year. During her doctorate at IKND Magdeburg under Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel, she had previously investigated memory functions with the aid of high-resolution 7 Tesla MRI imaging.

Supported by a Helmholtz Postdoc Grant, she then went to Berkeley to investigate the influence of Alzheimer's pathology on memory in the Berkeley age cohort in Bill Jagust's lab. Through molecular imaging (PET) using radioactive tracers, the regional spread of dew and amyloid proteins, which are also found in cognitively "normal" elderly people, can be mapped in living humans.

On the other hand, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) makes it possible to measure the function of memory networks in humans. The combined use of both imaging modalities showed that tau and amyloid are deposited in different memory networks, which was associated with specific memory deficits. At the DZNE Magdeburg, the new research group will use molecular and functional MRI imaging to better understand which memory functions are disturbed in old age and in neurodegenerative diseases and which factors influence neuronal plasticity in old age.

On April 30 at 13:00, the group will be presented at the DZNE during an inaugural lecture (House 64, Room 121). The event is open to the public (in English) and guests are very welcome.