Translating research into effective and sustainable drug therapies

PROFESSOR LARS ITTNER

NeuRA’s Prof Lars Ittner is a world leader in ageing and neurodegeneration research. Educated in Germany as a medical doctor and later in Switzerland, Prof Ittner combines his medical understanding with his molecular expertise to translate today’s discoveries into tomorrow’s drug treatments for patients suffering from neurodegenerative conditions.

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Understanding the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

This project has – for the first time – identified how the two hallmark proteins amyloid-ß and tau orchestrate the disease, leading to brain degeneration and loss of cognition. Now Prof Ittner’s team is working on interfering with this process to eventually halt progression of the disease.

Enhance clearance of toxic waste products from the brain.

Accumulation of proteins that have undergone aged- dependent modi cations that render them toxic to brain cells is involved in the development of dementia. Prof Ittner’s team has identi ed a key step in this process and is now providing rst approaches for enhancing clearance of these protein deposits from the brain.

Antibody therapies for dementia.

This project takes advantage of the ability of the human immune system to produce proteins, called antibodies to get rid of toxic proteins. In boosting antibody production against those modi ed proteins that cause the brain to degenerate, Prof Ittner’s team has achieved stabilisation of disease progression even in advance models of Alzheimer’s disease.

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One comment

  • Reinhard Hass

    Under Antibody Therapies, does this mean we can obtain or take part in action of halting the progression of aphasia ( ppa ) ?

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