At KU School of Pharmacy, a new approach in the fight to end Alzheimer’s

Michael Wolfe’s interest in Alzheimer’s disease research started at a conference when he met a researcher  who was studying the disease that impacts nearly 7 million Americans. Wolfe knew nothing about the disease – let alone its causes – but he felt that as a medicinal chemist, he could have a role in discovering its cure.

“Alzheimer’s disease is very costly,” said the Mathias P. Mertes Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. “It’s very devastating to the patients and their families. I’ve dedicated my career to understanding the molecular basis of Alzheimer’s disease and how to develop therapeutic agents to treat it.”

While its exact causes are unknown, the most accepted hypothesis is that a protein accumulates in the brain, attaching to neural pathways and disrupting the communication between brain cells. Wolfe’s earlier research led to the discovery of the enzyme that makes this sticky protein. His most recent research, however, has shown that it’s not necessarily these sticky proteins that are to blame but the stalled process of the enzyme trying to make them that is triggering the loss of connections between brain cells. The continual loss of these connections over the course of years eventually leads to the decline of memory and ability to think that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease. The hope is that this research will eventually lead to drug therapies that are able to restart that stalled process and prevent further deterioration.

When Wolfe came to KU in 2016 from Harvard Medical School, where he was Professor of Neurology, he was able to set up his new lab in part because of donor support to the KU School of Pharmacy. Now such support is even more crucial.

“At the moment, we don’t have philanthropic funding for our research,” Wolfe said. “It all comes from federal NIH funding, which is difficult to get. We could certainly use more philanthropic support at this particular point where we’re trying to convince the field of this alternate hypothesis for what causes Alzheimer’s disease.”