Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases marked by the misfolding and aggregation of the tau protein, which leads to synaptic dysfunction and neuronal loss. Examples of tauopathies include adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia.

 Florida Tech’s Melissa Borgen is using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model to map the genetic and molecular pathways that drive these processes, hoping to shed light on early mechanisms of neurodegeneration and open avenues for intervention. Using this method, the team discovered a new prodegenerative role of RPM-1/Phr1/MycBP2 in tau-mediated neuronal damage and identified three downstream pathways influencing axon degeneration. PHR proteins are “intracellular signaling hubs” with an important role in neurodevelopment.

• Melissa Borgen