Ralph Nixon Receives CHDI Foundation Grant
New York – Dr. Ralph Nixon, Director of the CDR, receives a grant from the CHDI Foundation for his proposed research, titled “Comparative Evaluation of the Autophagy Pathway and Related Systems in Huntington Brain.” The research aims to characterize the autophagy response in neurons in Huntington’s disease and the suspected evolution of pathologic impairment of this response in relation to disease progression using ultrastructural, immunohistochemical, and molecular analyses. The study hopes to uncover whether there are deficiencies that may contribute to the accumulation of toxic proteins, or alternatively whether the accumulation of these proteins shuts down this proteolytic clearing system, ultimately leading to cell death.