Alzheimer's Disease Genetic Research with Dr. Rudy Tanzi

The Dr. Raj Podcast

Today's Episode

Dr. Raj talks with Dr. Rudy Tanzi about his work in Alzheimer's Disease research, his acronym SHIELD for evading its progression, and how his background as a musician has intersected with this work.

Today’s Guest

Dr. Tanzi is the Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, and Co-Director of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also serves as the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tanzi received his BS (microbiology) and BA (history) at the University of Rochester in 1980 and his PhD (neurobiology) at Harvard Medical School in 1990.

Dr. Tanzi co-discovered the first Alzheimer’s disease (AD) gene, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, and the two other early-onset familial AD genes, presenilin 1 and presenilin 2. As leader of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project, Dr. Tanzi identified several other AD genes, including CD33, the first AD gene shown to regulate neuroinflammation. He also discovered the Wilson’s disease gene and other neurological disease genes.

Dr. Tanzi’s team was the first to use human stem cells to create three-dimensional neural-glial; cell culture organoids of AD, dubbed “Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish”. This model was the first to recapitulate all three key AD pathological hallmarks in vitro, and first to definitively show that amyloid plaques directly cause neurofibrillary tangles - and also made drug screening for AD faster and more cost-effective. Using this system, Dr. Tanzi has developed several novel therapies for AD including gamma secretase modulators targeting amyloid pathology and AMX0035, which was already successful in a clinical trial of ALS and now seeking FDA approval. Dr. Tanzi also discovered that beta-amyloid plays a functional role in the brain as an anti-microbial peptide, supporting a role for infection in AD pathology.

Dr. Tanzi serves as Chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Leadership Group and numerous advisory and editorial boards. He has been named to TIME magazine’s list of TIME100 Most Influential People in the World. Dr. Tanzi is a New York Times bestselling author who has co-authored the books Decoding Darkness, and the bestsellers Super Brain, Super Genes, and The Healing Self with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Dr. Tanzi has hosted several shows on public television, regularly appears on television news programs, and has testified to Congress on both Alzheimer’s disease and brain health.

About Dr. Raj

Dr Raj is a quadruple board certified physician and associate professor at the University of Southern California. He was a co-host on the TNT series Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry, a regular on the TV Show The Doctors for the past 7 seasons and has a weekly medical segment on ABC news Los Angeles.

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Produced by: Christopher Breitigan and Erin McCue.

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