Research: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by neuronal impairment in the hippocampus, the formation of amyloid plaques, hyperphosphorylated tau protein, and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. The overexpression of amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) in an AD brain leads to the binding of APP intracellular domain (AICD) to Fe65 protein via the C-terminal Fe65-PTB2 interaction, triggering the secretion of amyloid-β and the pathogenesis of AD. Targeting the interaction between APP and Fe65 presents a promising therapeutic approach for AD. Recent research has focused on exosomes, extracellular vesicles with potential for delivering therapeutics to the brain, due to their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and be surface-modified with target-specific receptor ligands. We engineered neuron cell-derived exosomes to overexpress Fe65 enabled the development of a novel exosome-based targeted drug delivery system, which carried an autophagy inducer to the APP overexpressed-neuron cells in the brain of AD mice. This approach demonstrated the potential of engineered exosomes as an effective therapeutic intervention for AD.

Biography: Dr. Abhimanyu Thakur is a neurosurgery scientist at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA. He obtained a B.Pharm. from West Bengal University of Technology, followed by an M.Pharm. in Clinical Research from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. He then pursued a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong under the mentorship of Dr. Youngjin Lee’s Neuroscience Lab, where he identified exosomal MCT1, CD147, and CD44 as biomarkers and functional mediators in glioma (Science Advances. 2020). Subsequently, he contributed to the Center for Regenerative Medicine & Health, Hong Kong Institute of Science and Innovation. Later, at the University of Chicago, he worked in Prof. Joyce Chen’s Stem Cell Lab in collaboration with Nobel Laureate Prof. Harold Varmus, exploring the potential of human pluripotent stem cell-derived pulmonary neuroendocrine cells in health and disease (Nature Communications. 2022; eLife. 2024). Dr. Thakur holds three patents and his research work have been published in top-tier peer-reviewed scientific journals. His honors include prestigious awards or grants including UChicago CORE Grant Award, National Science Foundation Funded I-Corp at Polsky, University of Chicago, a Young Investigator Award by American Association for Cancer Research, Korean Cancer Association, Global Young Scientists Summit Award by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the Chow Yei Ching Research Award, and Outstanding Academic Performance Award by the City University of Hong Kong.