Erlangen celebrates Tomohisa Toda: Joseph Altman Award for brain researchers!

Erlangen celebrates Tomohisa Toda: Joseph Altman Award for brain researchers!

Erlangen, Deutschland - Tomohisa Toda, an outstanding neuroscientist, was recently awarded Joseph Altman Award. As the FAU, Toda is a professor of neural epigenetics at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and at the Max-Planck-Center for Physics and Medicine. The award recognizes its significant contributions to research on the role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in brain function and the aging -related changes in the brain.

The scientist born in Japan did his doctorate at the University of Tokyo and later worked as a postdoctoral at the renowned Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego. In 2011 he founded a research group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Dresden and moved to Erlangen in 2022 with his family as part of the High-Tech Agenda Bavaria.

research focus and innovative projects

Toda places a special focus on the mechanisms that influence the robustness of neurons in order to prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. As the fau.eu , he received an ERC Consolidator Grant in the amount of two million euros for his project in 2023. This project aims to examine the long-term stability of certain RNA molecules in nerve cells that remain without renewal for a lifetime.

A central goal of the research of Toda is the better understanding of Alzheimer's, a complex illness, the exact trigger of which is still unknown. This information is also supported by the spektrum.de that argues that epigenetic processes play an important role in the disease. These processes influence the reading of the genes in affected nerve cells and differ, for example, between neurons of Alzheimer's patients and healthy people.

challenges of Alzheimer's research

Current studies, such as those of Jonathan Mill at the University of Exeter, show that changes in the epigenetic regulation are of central importance. Research has identified differences in the acetylation of histones that act as packaging proteins of the genetic engineering. These changes could potentially give an insight into the development of Alzheimer's, although it remains unclear whether it is the cause or consequence of the disease.

animal experiments have shown that certain active ingredients that target the enzymes show the histones, show positive results against dementia symptoms. Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether these results are transferable to humans. Despite the challenges, the research path taken seems to be promising, and the opportunity to do fundamental research in Germany, appreciates, appreciates. In the near future, he plans to present his research results at the Long Night of Sciences.

with his family, Tomohisa Toda lives in a large apartment in the city center of Erlangen, where he continues to play an important role in neuroscience and Alzheimer's research.