Alzheimer’s Research Funded by Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation

As a fourth-year student in the Kent State University Biomedical Sciences graduate program working in the lab of Christine Denlger-Crish, Ph.D., in NEOMED’s Neurodegenerative Disease and Aging research group, Gabrielle Frame has been focusing her dissertation research on visual system dysfunction in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.

The Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation recently awarded Frame funding to pursue her research into the impact of diminishing vision on cognitive/memory changes in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.

Frame explains, “Visual dysfunction is quite common in early dementia patients, and current research shows that Alzheimer’s mouse models also have impaired vision. These models show characteristic memory loss and cognitive dysfunction as expected, but little attention has been paid as to whether their visual impairments contribute to memory loss.

“Understanding the relationship between early visual dysfunction and cognitive changes in this disease will help us achieve our overall research goal of identifying new, druggable targets for early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s before it can progress to destroying memory.”