Our aim is to develop new therapeutic options and advance them into clinical testing, and to decipher disease mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases. These include Alzheimer's disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, cerebral small-vessel disease and cognitive sequelae after acute stroke.

In particular, we are interested in the role of neuroinflammatory changes in glial cells - astrocytes and microglia - and the neurovascular unit in these diseases. To this end, we use methods such as in vivo multiphoton microscopy, complex behavioral assays, cell-specific transcriptome analyses, ultra-high field MRI and bioinformatic analyses.

Our areas of interest include:

• The role of reactive astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease
• The role of astrocytes and glial scar formation in acute stroke
• Neuroinflammation in the white matter in cerebral small-vessel disease
• Pathophysiology of cerebral microinfarcts and microhemorrhages in cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer's disease
• Cellular mechanisms of blood-brain barrier dysfunction and neurodegeneration in cerebral amyloid angiopathy
• Interactions of genetic and acquired risk factors in Alzheimer's disease

Based on this, we are also conducting translational and clinical studies focusing on the pathophysiology and treatment of acute stroke, cerebral small-vessel disease, vascular dementia and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.