UW Bioengineering Professor Valerie Daggett’s research was featured in an article, “Innovative Medicine”, published in the November 2014 issue of Alaska Airlines Magazine.
The article discussed novel approaches to treating complex diseases currently being developed by Seattle-area researchers at UW, Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Swedish Cancer Institute. It describes how Dr. Daggett’s lab is designing peptides that may prevent damage caused when normal proteins stop functioning as they should and accumulate in the body. The buildup of abnormal proteins is thought to be a contributing factor in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more. The researchers discovered that these proteins undergo a toxic intermediate stages. They built a protein structure that binds to abnormal proteins and neutralizes this middle stage, preventing the protein from transforming to its final form.
Dr. Daggett and her team believe their work may one day provide better diagnostic tools and treatments for amyloid diseases.
Dr. Daggett’s work was also featured in recent UW News and Information article. Read more…