Dr Shane Liddelow receives Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s research

The Honorary Fellow of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics has been recognised for the most significant Alzheimer’s study of the last two years.

Dr Liddelow has received the award in recognition of his research on the role of reactive astrocytes in driving cell death in neurodegenerative disorders. In his research paper, published in Nature in January 2017, Dr Liddelow and his colleagues have shown that reactive astrocytes are induced by neuroinflammation, and that blocking these cells was able to prevent neuronal death.

The research consequently highlights reactive astrocytes as a potential therapeutic target in neurodegenerative disorders.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, with up to 300,000 Australians currently living with the neurodegenerative disease.

Dr Liddelow received his Bachelors of Science (Hons) and Biomedical Science from the University of Melbourne. He went on to complete his PhD in the Saunders laboratory within the School of Biomedical Sciences and is an honorary fellow of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Melbourne. He currently Assistant Professor and Head of the Liddelow Laboratory at the Neuroscience Institute at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

The award was presented to Dr Liddelow in July at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Los Angeles.

The award recognises what is considered as the most impactful published study in Alzheimer’s research during the two years preceding the AAIC. It was established in honour of world-renowned scientist and Alzheimer’s disease researcher Dr Inge Grundke-Iqbal, who made several seminal findings in the biology of Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions.