UCI MIND faculty member Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones was awarded a $500,000 grant from Orange County Community Foundation to test 1200+ FDA-approved compounds for effectiveness in Alzheimer’s disease treatment. His lab seeks to find the top 20 genes and drugs that safely prevent brain damage caused by microglia, which are critical immune cells in the brain that ‘prune’ unnecessary neuronal connections, or synapses. In the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, damage can be caused by microglia ‘overpruning’ synapses, leading to loss of necessary connections. UCI News reports that Dr. Blurton-Jones and his team are “grateful to be the recipients of this OCCF grant and remain confident that through our clinical trials and studies, we could be well on our way toward finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.”