Dr. Daniela Zarnescu, Professor MCB, has been awarded a grant from DOD with collaborators Dr. Rita Sattler, Associate Professor, Neurobiology at Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) https://www.barrowneuro.org/ and Dr. Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen at tgen https://www.tgen.org/ to identify molecular mechanisms underlying fronto-temporal dementia (FTD). In this project titled Genotypic and phenotypic examination of disease pathogenesis in C9orf72 FTD, Sattler and Keuren-Jensen will first perform single cell RNA sequencing from patient cells to identify a molecular signature of disease. Zarnescu’s lab will then use genetic tools to test the impact of these molecular changes on FTD-like phenotypes in fruit flies. This would be the first time that C9 FTD would be modeled in a fruit fly model. These phenotypes include morphological abnormalities in the brain, specifically in the neurons involved in learning and memory and behavioral assays that test learning and memory. We will be focusing on C9orf72 type of FTD which is a common genetic link to both FTD and ALS. This is a three-year grant.