Draft:Onder Albayram

Onder Albayram (born March 12, 1980) is a Turkish-American neuroscientist and neuropharmacologist. He is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC, USA. His research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches integrating his background and research interests in aging brain and dementia. He studies the different involvement of innate neuroprotective mechanisms in the physiology of young and aged brains, as well as pathological conditions relevant to cerebrovascular and trauma-related disorders.

Biography
His journey into the realm of research training commenced during his undergraduate years at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. There, he was involved in a study exploring the sensory ability of the nematode organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which played a crucial role in discovering how the animal integrates signals from food and hypoxic stress to regulate its sensorimotor circuitry. In 2008, he completed his master's in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, with a thesis titled "Molecular genetic mechanisms of schizophrenia and pharmacogenetic characterizations."

In 2009, he joined the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry Ph.D. program at the University of Bonn in Germany. His research focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of age-dependent changes in the endocannabinoid system and their effects on long-lasting neuro-immune adaptations. This research led to the discovery of the crucial role of Cannabinoid receptor 1 -expressed GABAergic neurons in regulating microglial activity and its protective function in aging brain. Albayram also equally contributed to the discovery that low doses of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) appeared to rejuvenate aged brains by restoring deficits in cannabinoid signaling, contrary to its documented detrimental effects in young brains. This finding was published as a cover story in Nature Medicine and has been recognized by numerous press outlets, including Scientific American, The Guardian , Inverse , News Week , Alzheimer’s Forum.

After completing his research training in neurobiology related to brain aging in Europe, Albayram joined Harvard Medical School in 2014, which developed novel tests to identify a specific form of the phosphorylated axonal protein tau (cis P-tau) as a precursor to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and related-dementia. Albayram received the Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship Award in 2016 and recently published research connecting vascular insults to vascular cognitive impairment.

Albayram and colleagues recently discovered a transporter called p17 that induces mitophagy, eliminating damaged mitochondrion and promoting neuronal survival. This mechanism could help prevent age-dependent neurodegeneration and TBI.

Recently, Albayram's laboratory has demonstrated a progressive age-related cervical lymph node atrophy and thickening of lymphatics channels in the human brain's dorsal and ventral regions. These findings reflect the reduced lymphatic output of the aged brain, which results in deleterious immune and neuroinflammatory responses that contribute to the development and progression of age-dependent neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.