Major recognition for research on fat metabolism in brain

Neuroscientist Rik van der Kant (VU Amsterdam and Alzheimer Center Amsterdam UMC) and chemist Martin Giera (Leiden University Medical Centre) have been awarded a Neurodegeneration Challenge Network (NDCN) grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. With this grant of 1.6 million dollars, they will continue to work on mapping fat metabolism in the brain together with scientists from National Institutes of Health (USA). Research shows that fats, or lipids, play a major role in various brain diseases. Future drugs that target fat metabolism (metabolism of fats in the brain) have a great chance of stopping or even curing brain diseases such as Alzheimer's. With this research project, the scientists aim to contribute to a better understanding of brain diseases and accelerate the development of drugs that target disturbed fat metabolism. Cholesterol accumulation in Alzheimer's mutations - The grant is a follow-up to a starting grant they received 18 months ago from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Van der Kant: -During the start-up phase, the research groups of Martin Giera and me developed a new way to map fat metabolism in human brain cells.