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Illuminating disease pathways
The Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Diseases Lab is using advanced fluorescence microscopy methods to identify pathological changes that can form the basis for therapy development.
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Disease in a dish
Dr. Rossoll's Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Diseases Lab is discovering therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases by modeling disease processes in cultured cells.
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Targeting protein aggregation
Dr. Rossoll's team is utilizing cutting-edge methods to identify ways to prevent the formation of pathological protein aggregates in neurons. (Image: Ching-Chieh Ian Chou, Ph.D.)
Overview
The Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory of Wilfried Rossoll, Ph.D., at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida is dedicated to studying molecular disease mechanisms and therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases.
In particular, Dr. Rossoll's lab studies diseases that are characterized by an abnormal assembly of multiprotein complexes. This includes the childhood disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which is caused by reduced assembly of RNA and proteins, but also age-related neurodegenerative diseases that are characterized by increased protein aggregation, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).
To gain a better understanding of these processes, Dr. Rossoll's research team uses cell culture models of neurodegenerative disease, including primary neurons and patient-derived cells. An important technical approach in this lab is the use of fluorescence microscopy, including live-cell imaging and super-resolution microscopy, to study disease processes on a cellular level. The Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Diseases Lab also utilizes conditional knock-in and transgenic mouse models to study the RNA and protein composition of specific cell types in the central nervous system (CNS) that are especially vulnerable to disease development. In collaboration with the Neuropathology and Microscopy Laboratory, cellular phenotypes studied in the lab are compared to the pathology present in patient tissues.
The identification of disease-specific cellular defects allows Dr. Rossoll and his research team to develop cell-based screening methods for the identification of potential therapies for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
About Dr. Rossoll
Dr. Rossoll is a neuroscientist in the Department of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida. He also serves as an associate professor of neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. His research focus is providing a better understanding of defects in RNA processing and the pathological aggregation of proteins, an essential step in the development of effective novel therapeutic strategies for patients with neurodegenerative disorders.