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Dongming Cai, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator. Dr. Cai is a Professor of Neurology at The University of Minnesota, and a Physician Scientist at The Minneapolis VA Health Care System. She trained in Neuroscience with Marie Filbin, Ph.D at Hunter College of The City University of New York, and in Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology during postdoctoral research with Nobel laureate Paul Greengard, Ph.D at The Rockefeller University. Later she received Neurology Residency training at Yale School of Medicine. Since 2010, she has been a physician scientist at the Bronx VA and in the Department of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. By combining expertise in basic neuroscience and clinical neurology, her laboratory studies focus on translating current understanding of disease mechanisms into development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s Disease, traumatic brain injury and other neurodegenerative diseases. She also provides outpatient care for civilians and veterans with cognitive impairment at St Louis Park Memory Clinic as well as VA GRECC and Neurology teaching clinics. Dr. Cai has been remarkably productive in terms of scientific publications and awards. She was authored on many publications in high profile journals such as Neuron, Molecular Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Molecular Neurodegeneration, and Science Translational Medicine. She obtained significant research funding from the NIH, Alzheimer’s Association, and VA Medical System, among others. She has also been on editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Cai can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
MD, Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, China
PhD, The City University of New York, NY
Li Zhu, Minghao Zhong, Gregory Elder, Mary Sano, David Holtzman, Samuel E Gandy, Christopher Cardozo, Vahram Haroutunian, Nikolaos K Robakis, Dongming Cai (2015) Phospholipid dysregulation contributes to ApoE4-associated cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease pathogenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Sept 8;112 (38): 11965-11970; PMCID: PMC26372964 Jiqing Cao*, Farida El Gaamouch*, James S. Meabon, Kole Meeker, Li Zhu, Margaret B. Zhong, John Bendik, Gregory Elder, Ping Jing, Jiahong Xia, David G Cook, and Dongming Cai (2017) ApoE4-associated phospholipid dysregulation contributes to development of AD after mild TBI exposure. Scientific Reports Sep 12;7(1):11372. PMCID: PMC5595858 Jiqing Cao, Jing Ping and Dongming Cai (2018) Advances in developing novel therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease Mol Neurodegener Dec 12;13 (1):64. PMCID: PMC6291983 Jiqing Cao, Min Huang, Lei Guo, Li Zhu, Jianwei Hou, Larry Zhang, Adriana Pero, Sabrina Ng, Farida El Gaamouch, Gregory Elder, Mary Sano, Alison Goate, Julia TCW, Vahram Haroutunian, Bin Zhang and Dongming Cai (2021) MicroRNA-195 rescues ApoE4-induced cognitive deficits and lysosomal defects in Alzheimer’s Disease pathogenesis. Mol Psych Sep;26(9):4687-4701. PMCID: PMC7785685 Lei Guo, Margaret B Zhong, Larry Zhang, Bin Zhang and Dongming Cai (2022) Sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from multi-Omics landscape. Biol Psych Jan 1;91(1):61-71. PMCID: PMC8996342 Erming Wang*, Mariana Lemos Duarte*, Lauren E. Rothman, Dongming Cai# and Bin Zhang# (2022) Noncoding RNAs and Alzheimer’s disease: the Perspectives from Omics Studies. Human Mol Genetics (#co-correspondence) Oct 20;31(R1):R54-R61. PMCID: PMC9585665 Lei Guo*, Jiqing Cao*, Jianwei Hou, Min Huang, Li Zhu, Larry Zhang, Yeji Lee, Minghui Wang, Michael Chao, Yonghe Li, Alison Goate, Guojun Bu, Vahram Haroutunian, Dongming Cai# and Bin Zhang# (2023) Sex-specific molecular networks and key drivers of Alzheimer’s Disease. Mol Neurodegener (#co-correspondence; *co-first authors) June 20;18(1):39. PMCID: PMC10280841
Our research program has been focused on studying the regulation of brain lipid composition and metabolism by ApoE isoforms in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathogenesis. One of our current research projects is to develop preclinical candidates and new chemical scaffolds for AD therapies. More importantly, we will investigate mechanistic actions of newly developed drug candidates in AD which will shed lights on understanding pathways underlying ApoE-associated
AD pathogenesis. In parallel, another major lab focus is to understand the mechanisms underlying ApoE4-associated impairment in phospholipid homeostasis and AD development. We recently characterized a novel regulatory role of a microRNA in the ApoE4-PIP 2 -synj1 pathway. Our current effort is to further evaluate therapeutic and diagnostic implications of thismiRNA in AD. Other projects in the lab are focusing on exploring the interaction between ApoE4
and other risk factors such as traumatic brain injury and female sex in AD development and progression. We also work on investigating the role of ApoE isoforms in injury models such as spinal cord injury. Our research group has close collaboration with Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Department of Neuroscience, Department of Pharmacological Studies in Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dean's Distinguished Research Lectureship, 2024