Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=147373
Story Retrieval Date: 2/9/2010 8:58:30 PM CST
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Pascale Lacor
Neuron activitiy in rats when exposed to Alzheimer’s disease.
Neurobiologist deploys nanoparticles to search for Alzheimer's therapies
by Marita Vera
Nov 17, 2009
.jpg "Pascale face neuronmain")
Marita Vera/MEDILL
Northwestern neurobiologist Pascale Lacor studying neuron activity related to Alzheimer's disease.
She met with her guidance counselor for advice and the woman laughed at Lacor’s intention to study neurobiology, insisting that the teenager come up with a more realistic career goal.
But Lacor knew what she wanted to do after witnessing a close relative's slow and painful affliction with Alzheimer's disease. The roadblocks posed by her counselor and others cultivated a key trait - unrelenting persistence.
Lacor, 38, is now a neurobiologist working with a leading Alzheimer’s research group headed by William Klein at Northwestern University.
At Klein's lab, Lacor integrates nanotechnologies into cells to help track the origin of the synaptic disintegration triggered by neurotoxins related to Alzheimer's. The disintegration breaks down the communications system that carries messages from neuron to neuron.
The on-going research offers the potential for therapeutic development and even a cure for Alzheimer's.
Lacor started her research collaborating with nanotechnologist David Giljohann, one of the originators of gene regulation with gold nanoparticles developed by the Mirkin Group. The group is headed by eminent Northwestern nanotechnologist Chad Mirkin.
Lacor said she sought out Giljohann because of the Mirkin’s group success in getting gold nanoparticles into cells. Lacor wanted to see if gold nanoparticles could be inserted in neurons, a particularly difficult task, according to Giljohann.
She applied a new technique that combines genetics and nanotechnology to penetrate the neurons, a technique developed by Mirkin's lab. The new technique is allowing Lacor "to identify essential molecules, such as receptors or post-synaptic proteins" involved in the pathological process of Alzheimer's, she said.
Lacor is extremely dedicated to the idea of unraveling the mysteries of neurodegenerative diseases. Giljohann noted. "She has chosen a bold and innovative path to pursue," he said.
Lacor dreamed of doing cutting edge Alzheimer's research as a masters student. At that time she was working with neuropathologist Charles Duyckaerts at the highly regarded Hopital de la Salpetriere’s Laboratoire Escourolle in Paris. With Duyckaerts, she was conducting post-mortem diagnoses of neurological diseases, most notably Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
In 1993, Lacor wanted to move on to in vitro observations of living cells, a relatively uncharted territory at the time. Lacor wanted to examine animal cells exposed to neurotoxins, such as substances extracted from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patients.
The idea was to develop a model of what was going on in the brain of patients suffering from these dementias. By understanding how dementia develops, Lacor hoped to develop a model for testing neuroprotective drugs.
Unfortunately, this would have to wait as Lacor could not secure financing for the research at the time.
Instead, she focused on completing her doctorate work at Synthelabo, a French pharmaceutical company that did not deal with Alzheimer’s. Three years later, Lacor won one of two national scholarships to come to the U.S. to study neurodegenerative diseases, this time at the psychiatric institute at University of Illinois at Chicago, where she worked on schizophrenia.
While at the University of Illinois, she met Klein from Northwestern University, moved to his group and started working on Alzhemeir’s again.
Lacor has made up for lost time. In addition to her use of gold nanoparticles, Lacor has integrated nanotechnology into other studies.
She is also researching how certain neurotoxins are responsible for the progression of Alzheimer's by following the movement of memory related molecules on the surface of the cells. To do this, she uses a nanosensor tool capable of identifying the mobility of certain memory related protein.
Lacor’s applications of nanotechnology are both innovative and yields results.
“The bottom line is that Pascale knows how to obtain data that are convincing,” said Klein.
