The YERUN research mobility award enabled me to approach my search for a better treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in a different manner. Currently, pharmaceuticals have been investigated that can improve memory functioning but which are accompanied by side effects like nausea and vomiting. Therefore, if these pharmaceuticals might be more specific these side effects could be overcome.
I am investigating how this specificity should look like. The target of the pharmaceuticals mentioned above consists of multiple enzymes that are encoded by a single gene. We could compare this by multiple types of meals that are all written on a single menu. Current pharmaceuticals target the entire menu which could then cause side effects. With my research I hope to figure out which of the meals on this menu are involved in memory processes and which of these are involved in the side effects. Once we understand these different contributions, we could develop pharmaceuticals that target specific meals rather the entire menu and in that way prevent side effects.
See here a video where Dean explains his research more in detail.
Dean Paes was awarded one of the 26 Research Mobility Awards of the 1st call for applications that YERUN offered in 2018.
Read more about Dean Paes here.
