{"id":6908,"date":"2015-02-12T17:21:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T22:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2015-02-12T17:21:27","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T22:21:27","slug":"dr-chad-leugers-searching-for-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/6908","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Chad Leugers: Searching for Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unnamed\"By Jenni Beaver\u2014<\/strong>Dr. Chad Leugers, a Morningside biology professor, is working hard to find out more about a unique brain protein known as Tau. How does it work in brain development and what role does it play in the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease?<\/p>\n

In the continuation of his graduate research, Leugers has discovered that the function of Tau goes beyond adolescent brain development. The protein plays a role that was unknown prior to Leugers\u2019s research. Tau has a second function where it helps with the signaling that goes on in developing brain cells. This signaling tells the cell to become a neuron and grow the brain wiring in a specific direction.<\/p>\n

In the beginning of his research, Leugers was focused mainly on learning more about the development of the brain and Tau\u2019s role in this development. However, as the years went on and his research progressed, he decided it was time to add another layer and get more funding for the project. So, he began researching the protein and its contribution to the development of Alzheimer\u2019s. The main goal of the research on the disease is to find how the protein plays its role and discover a drug that could slow down the disease. Leugers noted that current research isn\u2019t sufficient on the Alzheimer\u2019s front. \u201cRight now we have nothing that can slow down Alzheimer\u2019s disease by one second.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be at least one year before a drug could be developed to help with the progression of the disease. So, for now, Leugers is content with analyzing the protein and all that it\u2019s used for.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, both [development and Alzheimer\u2019s] are important, but I\u2019m also really interested in how it works,\u201d said Leugers. \u201cHow do you go from a fetus, an embryo, that doesn\u2019t have a brain at all, and you have these stem cells, to a brain with all of it\u2019s complexity?\u201d<\/p>\n

Leugers has worked hard on his research, and he even enlists the help of Morningside students. Science majors and those who are interested in how the brain works and learning more about Alzheimer\u2019s, are welcome to contact Chad Leugers about helping with the research process. Right now there are students who are working on purifying proteins, and furthering the research Leugers started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jenni Beaver\u2014Dr. Chad Leugers, a Morningside biology professor, is working hard to find out more about a unique brain protein known as Tau. How does it work in brain development and what role does it play in the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease? In the continuation of his graduate research, Leugers has discovered that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":6909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morningside-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}