We study how Alzheimer’s disease (AD) develops in the brain at the molecular and cellular level. The aim of our research is to better understand the disease causes and to develop new diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive approaches. Additionally, we want to predict possible side effects of Alzheimer-targeted drugs and, thus, make drug development safer.

For our interdisciplinary research we use a variety of modern methods from biochemistry, molecular, cellular and neurobiology as well as in vitro and in vivo models of AD.

In our research, we focus on proteolytic processes in the brain. We are specifically interested in the molecular scissors (proteases) ADAM10 (alpha-secretase) and BACE1 (beta-secretase) as well as in newly identified genetic risk factors for AD, that may modulate proteolysis in the brain. Many of them are strongly expressed in microglia, the brain-resident immune cells, and may directly control the microglia-dependent inflammatory processes in an AD brain. We investigate the physiological function of the proteases and their modulators in the healthy brain, study the mechanisms through which they contribute to AD and develop ways to specifically target them for the treatment of AD.

Additionally, we develop proteomic methods for a faster and more detailed study of the proteases and their modulators, but also of the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid. This will not only allow a better understanding of the brain, but also help to develop new diagnostics for evaluating whether patients respond well to a drug.