Henderson Neurodegenerative Disease Lab. Misfolded proteins, disease processes, therapeutic development. PD and AD pathogenesis 🔬🧠
Grand Rapids, MI
Joined October 2019
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Come help us unravel the mysteries of neurodegenerative diseases!
We’re hiring a Postdoc in the Henderson Lab @ Van Andel Institute!
Join our team studying neurodegenerative disease across scales (molecular → circuits). Flexible, high-impact projects and strong mentorship.
Apply: vai.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en…
Please share!
Congratulations to @_AnikaWeekes on passing her comprehensive exam! Looking forward to all the exciting research to come!
Another fantastic year of hard work and discoveries in the lab! Happy holidays and new year from the Henderson Lab!
Excited to celebrate the graduation of our first PhD student--Dr. Alysa Kasen! @AlysaKasen
It’s been a busy year so far in the Henderson lab! We have several new lab members to welcome—Anika and Noah as new graduate students, Aastha as a new postdoc, Sydney as a new technician, and Giang, Kelsey, and @Abbeyzuzelski who are joining us as summer fellows! Lab is bustling!
We then used these data to gain cellular insight by inhibiting 12 kinases associated with vulnerability. Among these, inhibition of group II PAKs was highly neuroprotective in a neuron model of α-synucleinopathy. Bridge from pathology patterns to molecular targets complete!
Bridging network and cellular biology took a large team including co-first authors @namanvatsa, Kate Brynildsen, Tommy Goralski, and Kevin Kurgat and long-time collaborator @DaniSBassett!
Can new targets for Parkinson’s disease be identified by examining pathology patterns in the brain? We are very excited to share our latest preprint where we explore exactly that question.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
We developed a brain-wide neuron gene expression atlas (PANGEA). The atlas can be browsed here: lume.tv/PANGEA/. Surprisingly, resilience is associated with mitochondrial pathways!
We then compared these pathology patterns to the brain’s connectome, predicting where pathology would go. Some regions should have developed pathology but did not. What underlies this resilience?
We first needed data on the longitudinal progression of α-synuclein pathology. We captured this in over 1000 brain regions and 8 timepoints in a murine model.
