A New Role Discovered for Tau: Protecting the Brain from Oxidative Stress
Excess reactive oxygen species or free radicals (ROS) are a common feature of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. A recent study by postdoctoral associate Dr. Lindsey Goodman and Dr. Hugo Bellen, a distinguished service professor in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, who also holds a Chair in Neurogenetics at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, have discovered an important role for the disease-associated protein, Tau, in mitigating damage to the brain caused by excessive ROS and in promoting healthy aging. The study was recently published in Nature Neuroscience…