William Van Nostrand, co-executive director of the University of Rhode Island's George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and professor in the URI College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to study cerebral amyloid angiopathy, according to a July 31 announcement.
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a disease prevalent among elderly individuals and commonly found in patients with Alzheimer's disease. It is characterized by the buildup of amyloid-beta protein in the walls of brain blood vessels, which can lead to vessel damage, increased risk for brain bleeds and hemorrhagic stroke, and contribute to cognitive decline. The condition is difficult to diagnose accurately and currently lacks targeted treatment options.
"Despite the prevalence of the disease, there are no reliable early-stage biomarkers, and disease-modifying therapies currently do not exist," said Van Nostrand.
The funding comes as part of a $9 million five-year Transatlantic Networks of Excellence grant from the Leducq Foundation under an initiative called TRAFFIC (Translational Framework For Innovation in Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy). The goals include elucidating disease mechanisms, identifying early-stage biomarkers, and finding potential targets for intervention.
"Our role at URI will be to perform studies to address why CAA develops in people and how certain risk factors for disease can increase the chance for bleeding in the brain," said Van Nostrand. "This will be done using an animal model developed here at URI that mimics CAA found in humans." Collaborators on this project include scientists from Harvard Medical School, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (Spain), Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany), with coordination by Andreas Charidimou of Boston University and Marcel Verbeek of Radboud University Medical Center (Netherlands).
The project is set to begin in January 2027. Since 2024, Van Nostrand has also worked on another Leducq Foundation-funded project focusing on disruption of brain waste clearance mechanisms involved in CAA development.
"Support from these highly competitive and prestigious transatlantic networks will reveal new insights into the disease, paving the way for better diagnosis and development of disease-modifying therapies," said Van Nostrand.
