Wenjie Luo
Wenjie Luo is an Associate Professor of Research in Neuroscience at the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM). Dr. Luo received her bachelor’s degree in Cell Biology in 1991 at Peking University in Beijing, and her doctorate in Cell and Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship training with Dr. Paul Greengard at The Rockefeller University, New York. She joined Weill Cornell Medicine in 2012 carrying a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) from NIA.
Dr. Luo’s research passion is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanism underpinning the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Her earlier research has identified the epichaperome, a pathogenetic protein network supporting the pathogenetic cellular activities in AD brain, and demonstrated a therapeutic potential by inhibiting Hsp90 activity. Her work also provided valuable insight for the biology and regulatory mechanism of gamma-secretase, as well as the processing and pathogenicity of amyloid-beta peptides. Dr. Luo’s recent work has significantly contributed to our understanding of how microglial immune pathways, such as APOE4, TREM2/DAP12 and NFB-mediated signaling, modulate amyloid and tau-indued toxicities in AD brain.
Her current research goal is to understand how microglia mediate tau toxicity in the AD brain via modulating the cellular activities and functions of other brain cell types. By focusing on disease risk genes, including TREM2, DAP12, APOE and CH25H, her team will investigate how microglial inflammatory signaling and microglia-derived signaling mediator crosstalk with astrocytes and oligodendrocytes to regulate amyloid and tau mediated neurodegeneration.
Research Interests: Understanding how brain glial cells, such as microglia and oligodendrocytes, contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease
Hobbies: Reading, hiking, photography
