Daniel E. Morse

Research Overview

Dr. Morse investigates protein mechanisms of Alzheimer's and other age-related degenerative disease and new ways of analyzing and controlling amyloid formation. Tangles of an abnormally folded protein, called amyloid, cause brain cell death in Alzheimer’s and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases. In research combining the approaches of biotechnology, physics and engineering, Dr. Morse's team discovered that they can mimic one of the natural triggers of amyloid formation using low voltage electricity. Using this new method to drive and simultaneously analyze the protein’s folding and assembly, Dr. Morse's team observed a critical tipping point between the normal behavior of the protein and its irreversible formation of neurotoxic amyloid fibers. Dr. Morse and his team currently are pursuing the analysis of molecules influencing this tipping point as a rapid new means to identify additional factors that may influence the onset of disease, and potential drugs and antibodies that might prevent or treat Alzheimer’s and other age-related degenerative diseases.