The brain is a high energy consuming tissue that needs a continuous supply of energy substrates from the circulation for optimal neurological function. Astrocytes are important for regulating the relationship between energy consumption and dynamic neuronal activity in the brain and are mainly involved in processes used for efficient transfer of energy substrates to neurons. Changes in astrocyte energy metabolism could therefore potentially disrupt essential neuronal processes, and this cell type has also been shown to undergo structural and biochemical changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here the cell type distribution and cellular levels of the brain enzyme CKB, which is crucial for energy homeostasis and known to have decreased activity in AD, has been investigated to identify changes associated with neurodegenerative processes...Read more

The postdoc Emma Gerrits in Jan Mulders HPA related research group at KI has recently, as the youngest person ever, received a 1.2 MSEK grant from Alzheimerfonden for research on the development of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)...Read more

In a study published in Molecular Neurodegeneration an international group of scientists including researchers from KTH have used a multiplex plasma profiling assay and a well-described genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) cohort collected within the GENFI study to explore potential plasma biomarkers that could reflect the pathology of this disease...Read more

In this movie neurologist Per Svenningsson at Karolinska Institute explains how 3D visualization of the brain using light-sheet microscopy can be used to better understand Parkinson´s disease...Read more

In this movie light-sheet microscopy has been used to visualize muscle fibers and alpha motor neurons in muscle and Eva Hedlund, professor in Neurobiology at the Karolinska Institute, explains how these muscles function and how they are affected by the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)...Read more