UW Chemistry Professor Seeks Alzheimers Disease Diagnosis Tool

The Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) has awarded a $10,000 grant to a University of Wyoming researcher who seeks to develop a diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease.

Debashis Dutta, an associate professor in the UW Department of Chemistry, is among 11 researchers who received health pilot grants that provide jump-start funding and services to develop preliminary findings and test “proof of concept” to support full-scale, competitive grant applications. The ITHS goal is to improve the health for people throughout Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

Dutta says he is developing a diagnosis to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients through early treatment. His study will focus on developing an assay method that will be capable of reliably detecting a pathogenic biomarker in human cerebrospinal fluid at an early stage of the disease.

The ITHS provides access to training, equipment, pilot funding and clinical study resources to help translate discoveries into practice. The research supported by ITHS is focused on improving health outcomes for individuals with diseases and conditions that include Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, colon cancer, high-risk pregnancies, HIV/AIDs and Parkinson’s disease.

The Dutta research group focuses on the design of novel micro- and nanofluidic instrumentation that can enhance current capabilities to perform chemical and biochemical assays.