What if a critical piece of the puzzle of brain aging has been hiding in plain sight? While neuroscience has long focused on proteins and DNA, a team of Stanford researchers dared to shift their gaze to sugars - specifically the complex sugar chains that cover all our cells like chain mail.
Their investigation revealed how changes in this sugary armor on the brain's frontline cells could be key to understanding cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer's.
"This is like landing on a new planet," says Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry and Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, whose groundbreaking research on cell surface sugars and their biological roles laid the groundwork for this interdisciplinary study. "We're stepping outside for the first time and trying to make sense of what's out there."
At the center of this discovery is Sophia Shi, a Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellow, whose doctoral research bridges the labs of Bertozzi and neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and the Director of the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
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Sophia Shi, the study's lead author and a Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellow and PhD student in the Department of Chemistry. | Courtesy Sophia Shi
