Lindsay De Biase has received the 2021 McKnight Brain Research Foundation Innovator Award in Cognitive Aging and Memory Loss. She is one of her two scientists each receiving her $750,000 to lead groundbreaking research in the field of cognitive aging.
De Biase is an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Her research interests include c.Causes and effects of focal differentiation of microglia within basal ganglia circuits.
With this grant, De Biase explored whether microglia shape synaptic health during aging due to changes in the extracellular matrix (the network of proteins and sugars woven around neurons that regulate synaptic stability). You can research what Recent studies have shown that microglia can express numerous genes involved in extracellular matrix construction and degradation, overwhelming their constituents.
De Biase searches for links between microglia-extracellular matrix interactions, synaptic stability, and cognitive performance in aged mice and rats. Her overall goal is to find ways to maintain cognition.
