Interrupting Connection

The neurons in a brain can be compared to a cargo truck that transports from one place to another. But, when someone has a neurodegenerative disease, it’s like that cargo truck has a flat tire or dead battery that brings all delivery to a halt.

It is that breakdown, or reason why the cargo truck stopped, that is at the heart of the research done by Jianning Wei, Ph.D.,  a molecular neuroscientist who studies neurodegenerative diseases in the brain.

Wei, an associate professor in the department of biomedical science in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine,  focuses on Huntington’s disease, a rare, inherited disease that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, using a combination of molecular, genetic, biochemical and imaging approaches.

Before Wei began her journey researching Huntington’s disease, she studied organic chemistry and synthesis of macromolecules at the University of Science and Technology of China, and neuroscience at the University of Kansas.

“I’ve always loved research and experiments dealing with big molecules,  cellular functions and reactions,” Wei said. “It is the reason I began studying human health.”

Now in her lab at FAU, Wei’s research pinpoints specifically the role of huntingtin in cellular trafficking, a gene that is essential for normal development in the brain, how that mutant huntingtin interferes with the nerve cells and why the nerve terminal does not receive the essential components it needs to communicate with the cells in the body. In other words, Wei says the mutation leading to Huntington’s disease can cause impairments in neuron to neuron communication.

As Wei continues in the lab, her research is gradually expanding to include research in neuro-regeneration.  She collaborates with associate professors Erik Engeberg P,h.D., and Sarah E. Du, Ph.D., both from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Emmanuelle Tognoli from the Center for  Complex Systems  and Brain Sciences, to study how electrical stimulation affects neuro-regeneration in amputees.  

“It is a great project to be a part of,” she said. “I am excited to collaborate with this team and to expand into different areas outside of the brain such as the peripheral nervous system.”