Joseph M. Castellano PhD

Dr. Castellano earned his Ph.D. with David Holtzman at Washington University, where he studied mechanisms tying the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease to the metabolism of the pathogenic amyloid beta peptide. He employed in vivo microdialysis to show in behaving mice that clearance of this peptide is impeded by the presence of ApoE4 whereas clearance in the context of more protective forms is faster. During postdoctoral training in Tony Wyss-Coray’s group at Stanford University, he became engrossed in characterizing factors in the periphery that reverse features of brain aging, finding that neonatal plasma treatment revitalizes hippocampal function in aged mice. His group now focuses on characterizing the activity of blood-borne proteins like TIMP2 that mediate long-range effects on circuits in the brain in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.