QBI presents a seminar with Celeste Karch, Professor of Psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Karch is a Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. The goal of the Karch lab is to understand the molecular drivers of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and other neurodegenerative disease. To do this, the Karch lab uses functional genomics alongside stem cell and mouse models. The Karch lab has developed a somatic and stem cell collection containing deeply clinically characterized cell lines from individuals carrying genetic drivers of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. These cells are used to develop novel tools to interrogate mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease. Additionally, the Karch lab couples high-throughput transcriptomics and proteomics in stem cells and human brain tissues to identify disease signatures and to understand protein kinetics in disease. Dr. Karch is the Knight ADRC Biomarker Core leader and the Scientific Director of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN). In 2021, she was awarded the Rainwater Prize for Innovative Early Career Scientist.

Talk Title: Understanding the Contribution of Microglia to Neurodegeneration

Dr. Karch's talk will discuss the contribution of rare and common variants that drive Alzheimer disease and related dementia to microglia dysfunction.

Host: Danielle Swaney