She was just awarded a new 3-year research grant from the Alzheimer’s Association. The project will study the importance of neuronal cholesterol transport in Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Acosta Ingram will use advanced human brain cell organoid models to test outcomes of the APOE4/E4 risk allele. These 3D cell culture models will be used to investigate the effect of altered cholesterol transport in neurons on protein phosphorylation and aggregation, and association with glia response.

To test a unique hypothesis that altered cholesterol transport in excitatory neurons can contribute to tau pathology, the project will investigate the relationship between altered cholesterol homeostasis and neurodegeneration advanced cell models. Dr. Acosta Ingram’s work will seek to uncover early disease mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) by using human neural organoids (hNOs) with the APOE3/3 APOE4/4 gene risk.

This work will be conducted at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the Department of Pathology and falls under the umbrella of research conducted by the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (CADRC). The project will start in October 01, 2025 and go until February 28, 2029.