Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray
Dr. Wyss-Coray is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Stanford University and a Health Research Scientist at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System. He received a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Bern, Switzerland before focusing his interest on neuroimmunology and neurodegeneration at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and later at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California in San Francisco. His innovative research using mouse models of major neurological diseases has demonstrated important roles for cytokines and innate immune response factors in amyloidosis and neurodegeneration. In late 2002, Dr. Wyss-Coray moved to Stanford, where his laboratory is studying the relationships between cell death, inflammation, and neurodegeneration with a special emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease.
Because Alzheimer’s disease develops consistently in older people with Down’s syndrome, Alzheimer research will directly benefit individuals with Down syndrome. At the same time, a better understanding of the neurodegenerative processes in Down syndrome and animal models thereof will advance research on Alzheimer’s disease. In attempts to stop the neurodegenerative process in mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Wyss-Coray’s laboratory is trying to harness the brain’s own defense strategies and protective mechanisms. This has led to projects that test specific immune response factors in genetic mouse models in vivo and try to mimic these activities by screening chemical compound libraries. The results of these studies will hopefully lead towards the identification of therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome.
