Anuja Ghorpade, Ph.D., is the 2002 recipient of the Vada Kinman Oldfield
Alzheimer’s Research Fund Award. Dr. Ghorpade is assistant professor in
the department of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center. The Oldfield award will be presented on Monday, April
22, at 11:30 a.m. in the Healing Gardens of UNMCs Lied Transplant Center.
The award carries a $10,000 stipend. Col. Barney Oldfield established
the research fund at UNMC in 1999 in his wife’s honor. She died in 1999
after an 11-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The award is given annually
to an individual with a promising new idea in Alzheimer’s research.
In addition to the $10,000 annual award, the principal of the endowment
is increased by $10,000 each year. Col. Oldfield has said that once a cure
is found, the money will be redirected to battle other disorders of old
age.
Dr. Ghorpade is also UNMCs chief of the Laboratory for Cellular Neuroimmunology
at the Center for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders and the
scientific director of the rapid autopsy program. She leads the research
on the cellular mechanisms that interact to trigger neurodegenerative diseases
such as Alzheimers disease or HIV-1-associated dementia.
It is important to be able to grow relevant cellular models that mimic
the disease process in a culture dish. The primary brain tissue necessary
to isolate these brain cells needs to be derived from human donors. Dr.
Ghorpade led the development of a rapid autopsy program to obtain brain
tissue from the deceased patients both normal donors and donors who had
Alzheimers disease. It would not be possible to do this research without
the cellular models created from donated tissue.
Receiving the Vada Oldfield Award is a special honor for me, but I
have a lot of people to thank for the success of this program, Dr. Ghorpade
said. Given the difficult nature of the program, success would not have
been possible without the support of a lot of individuals.
I want to start with Dr. Howard Gendelman, all members of the Center
for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders, Chancellor Harold M.
Maurer and his executive committees, Drs. Susan Swindells and Jane Potter,
and Dr. Sam Cohen, chairman of the department of pathology.
In addition, this program owes a debt to Drs. Rodney McComb, Leslie
Bruch and Todd Kendall, the acute bereavement services at Nebraska Health
System Clarkson and University Hospitals, all the members of my research
technician team — group leaders Raisa Persidsky, Kathleen Borgmann,
Spring Holter, Li Wu and Robin Cotter and the former rapid autopsy
program coordinator William Brown.
Last and most importantly, I want to thank the donors and their families
who gave us the most generous gift of brain tissue from their loved ones
for this research. I can only say thank you to all and hope that this
research will prove significant in the long-term fight against Alzheimer’s
disease.
Dr. Ghorpade earned her Ph.D. in life sciences in India at the National
Institute of Immunology. She then completed three years of post-doctoral
training at UNMC. Prior to becoming an assistant professor in July
1999, she was an instructor in the department of pathology and microbiology.
In addition, Dr. Ghorpade received a research scholar award from the
Pediatric AIDS Foundation and currently is independently funded through
the National Institutes of Health. She also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer
for several peer-reviewed scientific journals. She is a member of
the International Society for Neuroimmunology, American Association for
the Advancement of Science, International Society for Neurovirology, Society
for Neuroscience and American Society for Microbiology.
Dr. Ghorpade is an avid teacher and mother of two boys, ages four and
three. She participates in undergraduate, graduate and medical students
education the University of Nebraska system and Metropolitan Community
College, Past recipients of the award are UNMC’s Vince Thomas, Ph.D., (1999),
Tsuneya Ikezu, M.D. (2000) and Daryl Bohac, Ph.D. (2001).