[HT-06-2] Seeded amplification-based assays for neurodegenerative protein-misfolding diseases
Dr. Saijo received her Ph.D from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and studied prions and protein misfolding diseases. She continued her studies as a postdoctoral fellow in Byron Caughey’s lab at Rocky Mountain laboratories, National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Her major project was to develop molecular biomarker assays to detect pathogenic tau seeding activities in biological samples from individuals with different tauopathy diseases, and the first prototype assay optimized for Pick disease was published in Acta Neuropathologica, 2017, following Alzheimer’s disease-optimized and PSP/CBD-optimized assays in Acta Neuropathologica, 2019 and 2020, respectively. The PSP/CBD-optimized assay was the first tau assay that was able to detect tau seeding activities in cerebrospinal fluid from living individuals with clinically diagnosed PSP and CBD. Dr. Saijo is currently a principal scientist in UCB Biopharma and continues exploring her research interests in improving the biomarker assays, understanding the molecular pathogenesis of protein misfolded neurodegenerative diseases and the protein structure to develop effective therapies and treatments.
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