# BLR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

> **NIH VA IK6** · VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS · 2020 · —

## Abstract

Currently, there are no treatments with significant disease modifying impact for major
neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. These
diseases, even in their rare, autosomal dominant forms, are age-dependent, with age
presenting the key risk factor for all sporadic forms of disease. Because the aging brain
becomes increasingly vulnerable to neurodegeneration, slowing or reversing aspects of aging
could therefore have a tremendous impact on the incidence and prevalence of these diseases.
 With a rapidly aging population, including aging Veterans pushing the boundaries of
what our health care systems can absorb, there has been an unprecedented interest in aging
and longevity from the public, funding agencies, and industry. Interestingly, studies of rodents
and humans suggest that interventions targeted to individual organs or tissues, including muscle
(e.g. through exercise), gut (e.g. through modifications of diet and the microbiome), and immune
system (e.g. by reducing inflammation), can affect organismal aging. But how these organs may
regulate aging processes is unknown.
 Dr. Wyss-Coray’s discoveries along with those of others indicate that the phenotypic age
of individual organs is malleable and can be altered by exposing the organism to the systemic
environment of an organism of a different age through heterochronic parabiosis or plasma
transfer. Unexpectedly, Wyss-Coray recently found that heat-labile factors in blood plasma from
young mice or young humans are sufficient to slow or reverse brain aging in mice. Conversely,
factors in plasma from old mice or old humans can accelerate aspects of brain aging and
cognitive impairment in mice. These surprising observations point in a new direction and
prompted Dr. Wyss-Coray to study brain aging from a physiological, top-down perspective. Dr.
Wyss-Coray is using chemical, bio-orthogonal manipulation of organisms, cutting edge
proteomics, and next generation sequencing to answer how young blood revitalizes the old
brain at the molecular level and to harness these processes towards reversing age-related
changes and Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. The goal of these studies is to develop
new treatments for Veterans and patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9911974
- **Project number:** 5IK6BX004599-02
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS
- **Principal Investigator:** TONY WYSS-CORAY
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2020-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9911974

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9911974, BLR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application (5IK6BX004599-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9911974. Licensed CC0.

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