Sarah Ackerman, an assistant professor of pathology and immunology at WashU Medicine, has been named a winner of the Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery (MIND) Prize by the Pershing Square Foundation. She is one of eight new fellows — all early- to mid-career scientists in the U.S. — who will receive $250,000 annually for three years, creating a community of next-frontier thinkers who can uncover a deeper understanding of the brain and cognition.
Ackerman, who is also affiliated with the WashU Medicine Brain Immunology and Glia Center, uses zebrafish, fruit flies and human brain samples to study how the brain’s support cells, called glial cells, wire the brain. With the funding from the Pershing Square Foundation, Ackerman aims to understand if swapping of energy-producing mitochondria between glial cells and neurons — a process thought to play a role in cellular repair and survival — is required for healthy brain aging. Using advanced imaging and genetic tools, her lab will track how this process changes with age and in Alzheimer’s disease, potentially helping to reveal a new pathway to restore neuronal function and slow neurodegeneration.
Read more on the WashU Medicine website.
