Li-Huei Tsai, MIT, to Speak at Neurodegenerative Conditions Conference, Sept. 9-10, 2013, Boston

Monrovia, CA, July 11, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Dr. Li-Huei Tsai, Professor and Director at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, will give a keynote presentation about “Recovery of Cognitive Function Through the Promotion of Chromatin Remodeling in Alzheimer’s Disease Models” at GTC’s 7th Neurodegenerative Conditions Research & Development Conference on September 9-10, 2013 in Boston, MA.

Histone acetylation represents a prominent epigenetic modification of the central nervous system genome that has been unequivocally associated with an increased rate of gene transcription. However, the chromatin enzyme histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) negatively regulates the expression of genes essential for synaptic plasticity and memory formation in the central nervous system. Levels of HDAC2 are markedly unregulated in the aged mouse brain, the brain of several mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as well as in the human postmortem AD brain. Increases in HDAC2, in turn, lead to a blockade of the expression of genes necessary for synaptic plasticity and eventually constrain cognitive abilities.

Professor Tsai will discuss how reversing the build-up of HDAC2 unlocks this epigenetic blockade of gene expression and abolishes neurodegeneration-associated memory impairments in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. These observations indicate that cognitive impairments resulting from neuropathology are readily reversible by manipulations that promote chromatin remodeling.

Li-Huei Tsai received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She then took postdoctoral training from Ed Harlow's laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital. She joined the faculty in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1994 and was named an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1997. In 2006, she was appointed Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and joined the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT.

GTC’s 7th Neurodegenerative Conditions Research and Development Conference provides a forum for lead researchers and scientists from industry, academia, government, and patient groups to discuss topics such as tau as a target, the amyloid hypothesis, imaging modalities, and where the field of neuroscience research is heading.

The conference is part of the CNS World Summit 2013, which includes the 6th CNS Partnering and Deal-Making Conference.

For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com/neurodegenerative