Maja SjödahlPhD Student

About me

Maja Sjödahl, MSc
PhD candidate in neurochemistry and molecular neurobiology

 

I'm passionate about increasing knowledge that can help better peoples lives, and I focus my work on Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is still without effective treatments as the underlying effect remains to be solved. Today this heartbreaking disease affects over 50 million people worldwide. But the numbers of people suffering is much larger, counting the close friends and family that are forced to slowly lose their loved one over time. In 20 years, the number is expected to have doubled, urging for better understanding of the disease. We know that carrying the APOE4 gene is the biggest risk factor after old age, but the reason for this remains uncertain. The ApoE protein is produced independently in the brain and the rest of the body, but has so far mainly been studied in the brain. In the body, the liver is the main producer of ApoE, and recently liver dysfunction has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Interestingly different ApoE in the body have been linked to changes in mouse behavior and brain changes. Further, humans with different APOE genes have showed different amounts of gene products, lipids and proteins in the liver. This makes us believe that carrying the risk gene APOE4 causes changes in the liver that drives Alzheimer’s disease. By contributing to knowledge of what drives the disease we hope to enable better treatment options in the future, and possibly a cure.

 

I'm also active as the secretary for the International Society for Molecular Neurodegeneration (ISMND), a multidisciplinary society for researchers of all different facets and levels of scientific disciplines to connect about Neurodegeneration.