In March 2017, 
Julie Neiworth, Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of the Natural Sciences and Psychology, received a $431,950 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a three-year research project to study the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
In her project, Prof. Neiworth and undergraduate student researchers will collect cognitive and behavioral data from a troop of cotton-top tamarin monkeys. They hope to distinguish “natural” aging-related declines in learning and thinking from declines due to Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain – plaques of beta amyloid molecules and neurofibrillary tangles of tau proteins. Since tamarins closely share certain key characteristics with humans, Prof. Neiworth’s research could lead to the development of new medical and training procedures for the treatment of AD in humans. In addition to working with up to 50 undergraduate researchers during summers, winter and spring breaks, and the three academic years covered by the grant, Prof. Neiworth, in consultation with Associate Professor of Psychology Sarah Meerts, will continue to seek evidence for beta amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the monkeys once natural death has occurred. Neuroscience students will conduct immunohistochemical processes with Neiworth to seek these markers of AD. For more, see her tamarin research page.
(Prof. Neiworth’s grant #1R15AG051940-01A1 is funded by the NIH National Institute on Aging.)