Angela Olson Dorigatti

Angela Olson is a graduate student in Dr. Veronica Galvan’s lab where she is working on research related to Alzheimer’s Disease at The Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. As an aging researcher, she is interested to test whether some of these aging interventions could slow or halt the progression of AD. Her research has put a spotlight on tau, a protein involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration, and how tau may exacerbate brain inflammation. She has found that tau can enter astrocytes (specialized glial cells that are important in neuronal homeostasis) which then induces senescence, causing cells to stop dividing and release pro-inflammatory proteins. This pro-inflammatory environment, in turn, damages neurons and leads to neurodegeneration in AD.

She is currently treating mice with senolytics which selectively remove senescent cells to determine whether the removal of these cells can ameliorate cognitive deficits in AD.