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Jessica Young is an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at UW Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying genetic risk factors for late-onset sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (SAD), a common neurodegenerative disorder. She is dedicated to developing robust laboratory models of SAD using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) that capture the genetic backgrounds of individual patients. Currently, she is generating cohorts of SAD patient and control stem cell lines in collaboration with the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center to investigate genetic variants in genes that control endosomal trafficking and sorting, which may contribute to SAD risk in human neurons differentiated from hiPSCs. Her laboratory employs genome-editing technology to engineer cell lines with risk and protective variants, aiming to test the functional roles of these variants in isogenic cells. This work is expected to enhance the understanding of the neuronal mechanisms that become dysfunctional in SAD and to open new avenues for the development of therapeutic interventions.
University of Washington • Seattle, WA
Teaching and conducting research in the field of Alzheimer’s disease.
University of California, San Diego • San Diego, CA
Worked in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine focused on Alzheimer’s disease research.
Standard Graduate School requirements for University of Washington apply to most departments listed unless specified otherwise by the program.