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Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to funding the most promising research to prevent, slow or reverse Alzheimer’s disease (AD), has announced the recipients of the second annual Jeffrey L. Morby Prize. Senior author Andrew S. Yoo, Ph.D., and first author Zhao Sun, Ph.D., both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, were selected by their peers for their paper “Modeling late-onset Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology via direct neuronal reprogramming,” published in Science in August 2024.
The Morby Prize is named in honor of the late Co-Founder of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, Jeffrey L. Morby, who inspired the nonprofit’s mission 20 years ago to fund research as a path to ending Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Morby passed away in September 2023.
Established in 2024, the Morby Prize will be awarded annually to the senior and first authors of a recent scientific publication that transforms the fundamental understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and opens new paths to translate scientific results into effective ways to prevent, diagnose or treat the disease. This year’s award included $200,000 for the senior author’s lab for Alzheimer’s disease-related research.
“Honoring researchers whose work is determined by their peers as breakthrough thinking and having meaningful impact on the Alzheimer’s community is a fitting tribute to Jeff’s remarkable legacy of empowering scientists to pursue rigorous and innovative research,” said Meg Smith, CEO of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. “The many extraordinary CureAlz-funded projects that resulted in published papers in 2023 and 2024 made the competition for this award fierce, and the endorsement of this paper by their peers speaks to the importance of the work of Drs. Yoo and Sun and their co-authors.”
The paper describes a groundbreaking method to study aged neurons in the lab without requiring a brain biopsy, enabling more accurate modeling of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. By transforming skin cells from patients directly into neurons that reflect the aging process, scientists now can observe key disease features, such as amyloid beta plaque buildup, offering new insights into Alzheimer’s disease development and potential treatment approaches.
“With the demonstration that direct neuronal reprogramming can model neuropathological features of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, this method will enable us to dissect how aging, as the primary risk factor, contributes to neurodegeneration,” said Dr. Yoo. “Moreover, the generous support from the Jeffrey L. Morby Prize will further allow us to develop reprogramming approaches to generate different neuronal subtypes and investigate neuron-intrinsic aging mechanisms in the context of specific cell types. We are excited about the possibility of delineating the mechanisms by which different neuronal subtypes become vulnerable or resilient to AD with aging.”
About The Yoo Lab
Andrew S. Yoo, Ph.D., is a distinguished neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His lab focuses on microRNAs as neurogenic genetic inputs and reprogramming effectors to generate human neurons by directly reprogramming non-neural somatic cells. Using this approach, his team investigates how aging in human neurons contributes to the adult- and late-onset of neurodegeneration employing neurons derived from individuals with various neurodegenerative disorders.
About Cure Alzheimer's Fund
Cure Alzheimer’s Fund is a nonprofit dedicated to funding the most promising research to prevent, slow or reverse Alzheimer’s disease. Since its founding in 2004, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has provided 971 grants to more than 300 of the world’s leading researchers and contributed more than $232 million to research. Its funded initiatives have been responsible for many key breakthroughs in understanding the causes and pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has achieved a 100% perfect score and a Four-Star rating for 13 consecutive years from Charity Navigator. Cure Alzheimer’s Fund also received a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, formerly known as GuideStar. Our Board of Directors, Trustees and a core group of other donors direct their donations to our overhead expenses so that 100% of general donations go to our research program. For more information, visit CureAlz.org.
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