Mark Albers

Mark W. Albers, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Neurology

The Albers’s Laboratory uses the olfactory system of mice and humans to elucidate early pathologic events of neurodegeneration in order to find: (1) a detailed mechanistic understanding of early pathogenic processes that are modifiable or reversible, and (2) a means to detect early stages of these diseases in humans before the onset of symptoms and distinguish early pathologic events from changes produced by aging.

Why olfaction? Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease suffer olfactory deficits early in the course of their disease, pointing to a particular susceptibility of this neural circuit to the pathogenesis of these diseases. Moreover, the olfactory circuit is one of the best-understood neural circuits in the mammalian brain. We now can precisely manipulate this neural circuit with specific genetic markers, rendering the mouse olfactory system an attractive experimental system.

In the laboratory, we combine molecular biological, anatomical, physiological and behavioral techniques to test hypotheses regarding the mechanism of actions of genes associated with neurodegenerative disease. We have generated transgenic mouse lines that express genes associated with AD and other neurodegenerative diseases in defined olfactory neuron populations with temporal control using a tetracycline-regulated transcription factor. We will be extending this experimental approach to genes associated with other neurodegenerative diseases, such as frontal temporal dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

In human studies, an odor-naming deficit is one of the strongest biomarkers to predict the development of AD in a person with mild memory complaints. We have identified ten odors that independently predict the conversion of people with mild cognitive impairment to patients with AD. We are using these ten odors in an odor-induced fMRI paradigm to decipher areas of the olfactory neural circuit that are selectively affected early in the disease course. Results from these studies will inform the development of the next generation of olfactory screening tests and identify sites in the olfactory neural circuit for further study in the mouse system.