Medical Student Aubrey Sperling Johnson Awarded Prestigious AOA Research Fellowship

“Alzheimer's disease is incredibly devastating and deeply personal to me, as I lost two grandparents to it. Watching them and my family go through that experience shaped how I think about this work,” says Johnson. “I'm honored to have dedicated, funded research time so I can focus fully on this project over the next year, and it's exciting to have the support of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society behind me.”

The fellowship will support the continuation of Johnson’s research into the role of neuroinflammation in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which she will conduct at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“We're really excited about this project because it's tackling an open question in the field,” Johnson explains. “We know that amyloid plaques and tau tangles become burdensome to brain tissue as the disease progresses, but the exact underlying pathogenesis is still not well understood. Neuroinflammation is increasingly recognized as a key piece of that puzzle.”

Using neuroinflammatory PET imaging, Johnson will examine the relationship between microglia and astrocytes, two types of immune cells in the brain that "talk" to each other during the disease process.

“By looking at how these two markers relate to each other over time, we're hoping to gain a better understanding of what part of the inflammatory process this type of imaging is actually capturing, and how astrocytes and microglia interact to influence amyloid and tau pathology,” says Johnson, who is planning to pursue neurology as a specialty.

“To me, neurology has it all. There are exciting new imaging techniques and diagnostic tools, but the field still places real emphasis on patient interviews and physical exams. It's also encouraging to see more new medications coming to market that can treat diseases once thought untreatable. It's an exciting time to enter the field, and I'd like to become a physician-scientist who can bring the latest research to the clinic, while also bringing the real concerns of patients from the clinic back to inform my research questions.”