Li-Huei Tsai, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, uses cutting edge molecular techniques to study neurodegeneration, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.  Her sophisticated and systematic understanding of the molecular biology of Alzheimer’s has led her to seek many different approaches to understanding and eventually repairing the affected neurons.  She recently returned from a Vallee Visiting Professorship in Stockholm where she spent September conferring with scientists at the Karolinska Institute where she was hosted by Dr Ulf Eriksson, an expert on vascular biology, and Dr Sophie Erhardt, a leader in the study of the pathophysiology of severe psychiatric disorders.  Through many productive conversations with senior investigators, postdocs and graduate students, Dr Tsai developed an appreciation of the breadth and depth of research being carried out at the Karolinska Institute which is in the forefront of developing single cell transcriptomics and spatial transcriptomics.  

Dr Tsai gave four well-attended lectures while in Sweden:
•    DNA damage and repair and their biological consequences in the aging brain.
•    Enhancing gamma oscillations in Alzheimer’s disease? Mechanism and pilot study in humans.
•    What is Life (without memory)? Can we use light and sound to treat Alzheimer’s disease?
•    Lipid disruption is a common mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease risk genes.

She also visited Lund University, Ume University, and the BioArctic company where she was warmly welcomed and met with several colleagues and students.  

Dr Tsai returned to Boston with a much better understanding of the extraordinary research going on in Sweden in her field. “I have brought home with me a wealth of new ideas that can be integrated into ongoing projects in my lab. New collaborations will likely be initiated with investigators at KI, Lund, and Ume. I have also made many new friends, and these new connections made this past month particularly memorable. I can’t wait to return to Sweden. “