About 5.4 million people in the United States live with Alzheimer’s disease, and that figure is growing at an alarming rate. Researchers and health providers predict that by 2050, a person will be diagnosed with the disease every 33 seconds.
Justin Legleiter, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University, has been awarded federal funding to decode how nanoscale molecular mechanisms may trigger neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“As we age, significant alterations in our cellular structure, with implications for cellular mechanics, occur,” he said. “Post-mitotic cells, such as neurons, are particularly susceptible to age related changes, and aging is the primary risk factor associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder.”
The National Science Foundation has awarded Legleiter $400,000 to be dispersed over the next five years. He will work to demonstrate that mechanical changes in cells may be associated with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which could potentially lead to therapeutic strategies.
The Faculty Early Career Development Program is the foundation’s most prestigious award and supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.
Legleiter will incorporate the research models that he and his lab group use into the courses he teaches and use part of the funding to reduce the teaching load of his graduate students — allowing them more time to focus on research. His proposal also reaches out to the future teaching corps for the Appalachia.
Legleiter has set aside funds to provide meaningful research experience to pre-service science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers, with a particular focus on pre-service teachers planning on careers teaching high school in the Appalachia.
The pre-service teachers will be recruited from among education graduate students at WVU who are interested in teaching science. The students will have the opportunity to create lesson plans that can be translated directly into the classroom from research activities.
“By providing this opportunity, it is believed that these teachers in training will be able to infuse the excitement of discovery not only in their education but also in their future classrooms,” he said.
Legleiter earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Murray State University and a doctoral degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. He has conducted postdoctoral work as a fellow in neurology/biophysics at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
For more information, contact Justin Legleiter at (304) 293-3435 ext. 6436 or at justin.legleiter@mail.wvu.edu.
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cs/6/14/11
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