# Optical control of tau aggregation to model Alzheimer's disease in human neurons

> **NIH NIH R03** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $163,750

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and its pathology is characterized
by deposition of β-amyloid and tau accumulations, leading to extensive neuron loss. The converging evidence
from in vivo and in vitro studies support that aberrant behaviors of tau protein and their aggregation play a
central role in the development of Alzheimer's disease pathology, but there is no experimental approach to
control tau aggregation with great temporal and spatial precision. To address this fundamental issue, we have
developed a new synthetic technique to optically control aggregation of pathogenic proteins upon light
illumination. We propose to use this approach to control tau aggregation in order to model AD with human
pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)-derived neurons. In future, our proposed studies will be complementary to
existing animal models, and providing a novel platform for drug screening/validation. The optical control of tau
aggregation will transform the current concepts of disease modeling and drug screening toward innovative
translational approaches.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9902299
- **Project number:** 5R03AG063101-02
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gabsang Lee
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $163,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9902299

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9902299, Optical control of tau aggregation to model Alzheimer's disease in human neurons (5R03AG063101-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9902299. Licensed CC0.

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