Jessica E. Young PhD

Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Associate Professor

Email: jeyoung@uw.edu | Phone: 206.685.1568

Our lab aims to understand cellular mechanisms that drive Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis using human stem cell models. Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder for which no treatment effectively halts disease progression. Human neurons and glia derived from AD patients and controls, via human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs),  allow the interrogation of genetic risk for AD and elucidation of affected biological pathways in a disease-relevant cell type. Our team is currently pursuing several avenues of investigation. 1) We are studying endo-lysosomal trafficking as an initial driver of cell stress and dysfunction in AD. These studies include understanding synaptic dysfunction in neurons and immune dysfunction in microglia linked to altered protein trafficking. 2) We are generating AD autopsy confirmed hiPSCs that we have stratified by common genetic risk in endo-lysosomal genes. Neurons and glia derived from these cells will be used in testing novel therapeutic compounds. 3) We are investigating genetic drivers of brain aging, inducing them in our cell models, and assessing hallmarks of aging such as proteostasis and mitochondrial function. 4) We have projects dissecting the role of APOE and sex chromosomes to understand sex bias in AD. 5) We are involved in the Adult Changes in Thought study (ACT), a Seattle-based longitudinal study where we use hiPSCs derived from ACT participants to study neurotoxic effects of medication taken by elderly adults, including assessment of neuronal stress, cell death, and increased production of neurotoxic Amyloid beta peptides.