Jorge Llibre-Guerra
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Medicine & Clinical Research
New drugs for Alzheimer's disease, lecanemab and donanemab, can slow decline in early symptomatic disease by 20–40%. Both work by clearing amyloid, the sticky protein that builds up in the brains of people with the disease.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
amyloid-related imaging abnormalities
anti-amyloid therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2031
What they work on
- Identify clinical, genetic and proteomic predictors of ARIA risk in patients receiving amyloid-targeted treatments, using the DIAN-TU trial cohort and the real-world Memory Diagnostic Clinic cohort.
- Develop and validate blood-based biomarkers that detect the onset and resolution of ARIA, to reduce reliance on intensive MRI monitoring.
- Evaluate the clinical and cognitive consequences of ARIA-E (brain swelling) after anti-amyloid therapy, comparing autosomal dominant and sporadic Alzheimer's disease.
More about the research
However, they can cause amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), side effects such as brain swelling or small bleeds seen on brain scans. Patients therefore need frequent MRI scans, which limits who can safely receive these drugs. Little is known about what causes ARIA or how to predict it.
Why it matters
Patients with early Alzheimer's disease could gain safer and more accessible access to lecanemab and donanemab if blood tests and risk profiles can predict and monitor ARIA. Such tools could reduce the need for repeated MRI scans and help doctors choose which patients are good candidates for treatment, making care more personalized.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Akihiko Urayama
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Neuroscience
Determine how chimeric versions of aducanumab and lecanemab are cleared from the brain in Alzheimer's model mice, and why clearance slows with age.
Huntington Potter
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Assess the long-term safety and tolerability of 24 weeks of sargramostim, a recombinant form of the immune-stimulating protein GM-CSF, in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 42 people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.
John Ringman
University of Southern California, CA·Neuroscience
Characterize and prospectively follow people with or at risk for autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease in Jalisco, harmonizing clinical and cognitive measures across clinics in Guadalajara and Tepatitlán and the USC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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