Bitplane Webinar Highlights Recent Developments in Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy
Yorba Linda, CA (PRWEB) June 03, 2015 -- Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia with nearly 44 million people affected worldwide. Characteristic neuropathological hallmarks of the disease are β-amyloid plaques which result from abnormal protein aggregation and deposition of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ). Aβ is produced by cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein. The amyloid-cascade-hypothesis postulates, based on strong genetic evidence, that Aβ accumulation is the central event in the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease.
Bitplane, an Oxford Instruments company, is sponsoring a new, free educational webinar, “The dynamics of β-amyloid plaque genesis – an in vivo study in transgenic mice of Alzheimer’s disease,” which will present recent developments in Alzheimer’s disease therapy, particularly in the field of β-amyloid plaque genesis and growth. There will also be a presentation of new methods of testing efficacy of Alzheimer’s therapies in preclinical studies.
The speakers will be Steffen Burgold and Finn Peters from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. They will discuss the use of long-term in vivo two-photon imaging to investigate the dynamics of β-amyloid plaque genesis and growth in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. The results from the study in mice showed sigmoid-shaped growth kinetics similar to those found in humans with a familiar record of Alzheimer’s disease by applying a β-amyloid radioactive tracer in combination with positron emission tomography imaging. The hope is that this work will help in the testing of therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease in animal models and translating them to the human situation.
Steffen Burgold is a postdoctoral researcher with a strong focus on imaging technology and its applications at the department for translational brain research of the German Center for Neurodegenerative diseases (DZNE) in Munich, Germany. During his PhD studies Dr. Burgold established a workflow to study the growth kinetics and genesis of β-amyloid plaques in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Jochen Herms by applying long-term in vivo two-photon microscopy in combination with advanced image analysis procedures. This work is currently applied in preclinical studies to investigate the efficacy of therapeutic strategies to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Finn Peters is a German Biochemist with a strong focus on neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases. Mr. Peters applies chronic in vivo two-photon microscopy to investigate the pathological mechanisms underlying Alzheimer´s disease. For this purpose he uses Imaris-assisted three-dimensional reconstruction of amyloid-beta plaques by surface rendering and develops Matlab-assisted routines for the semi-automatic quantification. This work facilitates the precision and evaluation time to assess the in vivo potency of novel drug candidates for the potential treatment of Alzheimer´s disease.
A live question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
The complementary webinar, hosted by LabRoots, will be presented on June 11, 2015, at 7 am PT.
For full details and free registration, click here.
About Bitplane:
Bitplane is the world’s leading Interactive Microscopy Image analysis software company. Bitplane was founded in 1992 and serves customers in 29 countries with direct representation and through partner organizations. Worldwide there are over 2000 research sites with more than 10,000 active users using Imaris routinely, resulting in a large number of peer-reviewed scientific publications primarily in the field of Neurosciences, Cell Biology, Immunology and Developmental Biology. Through constant innovation and a clear focus on 3D and 4D image visualisation, analysis and interpretation, Bitplane actively shapes the way scientists process microscopy images. In 2009, Bitplane joined Andor Technology, a world leader in scientific imaging, spectroscopy solutions and microscopy systems.
About LabRoots:
LabRoots is the leading professional networking website designed to connect all science verticals. Founded in March 2008, LabRoots’ vision was to connect the scientific world leveraging a myriad of unique features and tools, discovering meaningful collaborations across geographic boundaries and fields of expertise. LabRoots is the owner and producer of BioConference Live – which has grown into the world’s largest series of virtual events within the Life Sciences and Clinical Diagnostics community.
Jennifer Ellis, LabRoots, Inc., http://www.LabRoots.com, 714-463-4673, [email protected]
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