Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren

Our research

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, which causes immense suffering for tens of millions of patients and their relatives, and huge financial burdens for societies worldwide. Despite intense research efforts, there is still no cure or disease-modifying treatment for AD, although recent breakthroughs have created hopes that new therapies may be able to slow down the course of the disease. The lack of a cure is partly due to a lack of understanding of the earliest events in the disease, and how the different components of the disease cascade are linked together.

We are also interested in translating my findings into tools to manage brain injuries in general, including in other neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury after cardiac arrest.

Aims

Our research is focused on the earliest stages of AD. In particular, we are interested in understanding the mechanisms of beta-amyloid and tau accumulation, which are neuropathological hallmarks of AD.

There are still many mysteries regarding why beta-amyloid and tau accumulate. For example, the accumulation appears to follow largely predictable spatiotemporal patterns, but why do these processes start? And what underlies the selective vulnerability in different brain regions?

Another unsolved question is how beta-amyloid and tau are linked together. For example, beta-amyloid accumulation appears to be necessary for the detrimental spread of tau across the brain, but why? It is also not clear how beta-amyloid or tau actually cause injury to synapses and neurons. For example, how closely correlated are accumulation of beta-amyloid and tau with synaptic and neuronal loss? And what determines the variability in these correlations? Are there especially toxic forms of beta-amyloid or tau that are responsible for the injury, or are other components also necessary?

Impact

| Research Output

Strengths of the group

Being part of WCMM helps me to develop more advanced approaches to study these basic pathophysiological questions. I utilize a variety of experimental systems for my studies, including advanced biochemical and neuroimaging testing in human volunteers, genetic studies, and cell biology experiments.

Affiliations

• Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine 
• Mulitpark Lund University