Roger Rosenberg, M.d.

Biography

Development of a DNA Aβ42 Vaccine to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease is my major scientific interest and effort in my laboratory. I have spent the past 30 years in research in neurodegenerative diseases and Alzheimer’s disease in particular. I have been at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 1973, hold the Abe (Brunky), Morris and William Zale Distinguished Chair, am Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics and Physiology and have Chaired the Department of Neurology from 1973- 1991. I am the founding Director of the NIH funded Alzheimer’s Disease Center at UT Southwestern and it has been funded now through five consecutive competitive funding cycles since 1988 and will be funded through 2016 representing 28 years of continuous NIH Center funding.

Research Interest

My early amyloid related research in the UT Southwestern Alzheimer’s Disease Center is directed at determining amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing by neural cells in culture as a model system for the abnormal deposition of amyloid in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease patients. I have described  a platelet APP bio-marker that correlates in a linear manner with the severity of patient dementia . In 2006, I published that human platelets utilize beta and gamma secretase to produce Aβ42 and that platelets from Alzheimer’s disease patients synthesize more Aβ42  than control platelets due to an increased activity of beta-secretase. Platelet A β42 levels may be an important bio-marker for Alzheimer’s disease and a means to monitor effectiveness of drug effect in clinical trials.