Dr. Li Gan

Immune cell activity in the brain differs between males and females in ways that may explain why some neurodegenerative diseases affect the sexes differently

In the roughly 100 years since Alois Alzheimer first described the devastating neurodegenerative disease that now bears his name, scientists have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the brain. 

A novel mechanism that regulates activity in the brain, discovered by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, may help explain the origins of one common type of dementia.

As brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism and depression increase in frequency, the synergistic fields of neurology and psychiatry may illuminate important clues that can lead to innovative treatments for these conditions.

World experts in neurodegenerative diseases gathered at Weill Cornell Medicine Sept. 25 for the sixth annual Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute Symposium, sponsored by the Appel Institute and its home department, the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute. Every year, the symposium highlights the latest discoveries in the field, as researchers work their way toward a cure.

Dr. Li Gan, a neuroscientist internationally acclaimed for her research into neurodegenerative diseases, has been appointed director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, effective July 1.