Psychology degree leads to research on Alzheimer's Disease - nwitimes.com

Crown Point's Adam Bero recently began studying Alzheimer’s disease on the molecular level as part of a two-year, $100,000 research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bero, 29, is being funded by the BrightFocus Foundation, and is studying the complexities of the disease with an international team of biologists led by Dr. Li-Huei Tsai of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

“I will be performing experiments to better understand the molecular mechanisms by which memories are formed in the brain and how Alzheimer’s disease leads to memory impairment,” Bero explained.

“We hope to elucidate the contributions of various brain regions to memory formation, and understand how pathological changes in these brain regions contribute to memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.

Bero received a psychology degree in 2006 from Indiana University, also earning a certificate in neuroscience during his time there. He went on to study neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and earned a Ph.D. in 2011.

“I entered Indiana University on the pre-med track and chose to study psychology, as I was particularly interested in the brain,” Bero said. “By chance, my Psychology 101 course was led by a molecular neuroscientist. After those lectures, I was hooked.”

Bero decided to dedicate his studies to Alzheimer’s disease due to its prevalence and tremendous toll on the patient. He lost a relative to the disease recently, as well.

“It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. As a result, developing effective therapeutics for AD is perhaps the most critical objective in neuroscience,” he said.

“Over the last several years, we have also begun to appreciate that the changes in the brain that we think cause AD begin to occur 15-20 years prior to the onset of any clinical symptoms.”

“The field is now developing tools to identify and treat individuals who harbor pathology in the brain, but who are still cognitively normal,” he added.

The son of William and Susan Bero, of Crown Point, Bero is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society, and a 2011 recipient of the Hope Center Award for Research in Translational Neuroscience, recognizing his exemplary work in the field.