Role of Transcriptional Co activator CREB Binding Protein in Amyloid Beta-42 (A42) mediated neurodegeneration. Gregory F. Mancini, Meghana Tare, Amit Singh. Biology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH.

   Alzheimers disease (hereafter AD), a common progressive neurodegenerative disorder in the aging population, has no early detection tests or proper cure. AD results in gradual decline of cognitive functions of learning and memory due to neurodegeneration in central and peripheral nervous system. My project focuses on understanding role of transcriptional co-activator CREB binding protein (hereafter, CBP) in preventing neurodegeneration caused by A42 plaques in the Drosophila eye. CBP binds to a variety of transcription factors and components of several signal transduction pathways. It has been observed in high throughput approaches that CBP levels are reduced in cells undergoing cell death due to stress. Therefore, we propose to test if CBP can serve as a neuroprotective agent, and can prevent neurodegeneration seen in AD using Drosophila eye model.