Research Team Members
Sarah C. Hopp, PhD
Research focuses on microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, and how these cells are involved in Alzheimer’s disease and other age-associated neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia changes during aging, in Alzheimer’s disease and chronic neuroinflammation. A main research objective is to understand how these changes contribute to the initiation and progression of neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits. One line of research focuses on microglia interaction with tau pathology. Misfolded tau accumulates and spreads during Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies, and recent evidence from the laboratory suggests that microglia contribute to the spread of tau pathology via dysfunctional degradation of tau.
A second line of research focuses on how microglia intracellular calcium dysregulation in the context of Alzheimer’s pathology alters normal microglia processes and contributes to their dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. A particular interest is differentiating cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous effects of manipulating microglia in vivo. A variety of methods are utilized to address these research goals including transgenic animal models, behavior analyses, cell culture, imaging, protein biochemistry, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and pharmacological and genetic manipulation of microglia-specific pathways.
Research Areas
Biological & Innovative Research
Contact:
hopps1@uthscsa.edu
Research Profile
Sarah Horn, MD
Sarah Horn, MD, is a movement disorders specialist with expertise in the diagnosis and management of Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative parkinsonian disorders. Dr. Horn has an interest in comparative effectiveness research and clinical trials and is currently the principal investigator for an actively enrolling pragmatic clinical trial funded by the Alzheimer’s Association studying the long-term effects of quetiapine versus pimavanserin for psychosis associated with Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies in a real-world setting.
Research Areas
Clinical Research
Mini E. Jacob, MD, PhD
Research focuses on the process of disablement among older adults, particularly on the intertwining pathways to mobility disability and dementia. Previous studies evaluated whether behavioral factors like diet and physical activity in early old age can continue to influence health and affect the length of terminal morbidity and disability. Ongoing projects examine patterns and burden of multi-morbidity as a risk factor for disablement, the role of cognitive impairment in the pathway to disability and how a combination of physical and cognitive impairment can influence disablement. Current objectives also include evaluating how physical function measures correlate with markers of Alzheimer’s disease in asymptomatic individuals and identifying mobility measures that reflect brain vascular pathology.
Research Areas
Clinical Research, Population Neuroscience
Contact:
jacobm@uthscsa.edu
Research Profile
Xueqiu Jian, PhD
Research interests include the genetic epidemiology of human complex traits related to brain aging, with an emphasis on the discovery of novel genes influencing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related endophenotypes such as brain imaging markers and measures of neurocognitive function, using integrated multi-omics approaches in large-scale population-based cohort studies. Ongoing work is focused on detecting and characterizing rare copy number variation for Alzheimer’s disease by leveraging the next-generation sequencing technologies. Other interests include functional prediction and annotation of genetic variants using bioinformatics tools.
Some international collaborative efforts include the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP), the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP).
Research Areas
Population Neuroscience
Contact:
Research Profile