Sarah Hopp, Ph.D.

Research focuses on microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, and how these cells are involved in Alzheimer’s disease and other age-associated neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia changes during aging, in Alzheimer’s disease, and during chronic neuroinflammation. The main research objective is to understand how these changes contribute to the initiation and progression of neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits. One line of research focuses on microglia interaction with tau pathology. Misfolded tau accumulates and spreads during Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies, and recent evidence from the laboratory suggests that microglia contribute to the spread of tau pathology via dysfunctional degradation of tau. The second line of research focuses on how microglia intracellular calcium dysregulation in the context of Alzheimer’s pathology alters normal microglia processes and contributes to their dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. A particular interest is differentiating cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous effects of manipulating microglia in vivo. 

Specific Field of Study: Microglia in Alzheimer’s disease

Sub-Field of Study: Neuroimmunology

Associated Diseases: Alzheimer’s disease, aging, neurodegenerative diseases 

Techniques Used: Transgenic animal models, animal behavior analyses, cell culture, microscopy, protein biochemistry, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, pharmacology  

• Research & Grants

   

   

   

  Grants

  • Dysregulated intracellular calcium in microglia during Alzheimer's disease
  • Investigating CD33 function on microglia during Alzheimer’s disease using CRISPR nanoparticles

  "Elucidating the function of neuropsychiatric risk gene CACNA1C in microglia"
  Sarah C. Hopp, Ph.D. (PI)
  NARSAD Young Investigator Award
  01/2021 - 01/2023
  $70,000

  "PLCG2 AD variants in microglial lipid metabolism and calcium signaling"
  Sarah C. Hopp, Ph.D. (PI)
  Alzheimer's Association Research Grant AARG-21-846012
  09/2021 - 08/2023
  $150,000

  "Harnessing microglia to internalize and degrade tau"
  Sarah C. Hopp, Ph.D. (PI)
  CurePSP
  07/2022 - 06/2023
  $100,000

  "Investigating the role of microglial sialylation in aging and ADRD"
  Sarah C. Hopp (PI)
  Shock Center Pilot Grant
  06/2022 - 05/2023
  $25,000

• Publications

  • Microglia: Friend and foe in tauopathy.
  • Targeting microglia L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels for the treatment of central nervous system disorders
  • An integrated genomic approach to dissect the genetic landscape regulating the cell-to-cell transfer of α-synuclein.

  Tuddenham JF, Taga M, Haage V, Roostaei T, White C, Lee A, Fujita M, Khairallah A, Green G, Hyman B, Frosch M, Hopp S, Beach T, Corboy J, Habib N, Klein H, Soni RK, Teich T, Hickman R, Alcalay R, Shneider N, Schneider J, Sims P, Bennett DA, Olah M, Menon V, De Jager PL. A cross-disease microglial population framework enables identification of disease-enriched subsets and targeted chemical perturbation fo alter microglial phenotypes in vitro. doi.or/10.1101/w0ww.06.04/494709.