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BLACKSBURG According to the most recent report from the Alzheimers Association, one in 10 people above the age of 65 has Alzheimers disease.

Its the most common form of dementia, though many more suffer from similar disorders.

Xiaoting Jia, an associate professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, has worked for more than a decade to understand how Alzheimers affects the brain, and how to slow its effects.

Jias particular area of expertise is neural fiber, extremely small, strand-shaped devices that can be filled with electrodes and sensors to both provide in-depth imaging from deep in the brain, as well as provide some types of treatment, either through electrical stimulation or through direct application of medications.

Jia, along with neuroscientist and long-time collaborator Harald Sontheimer and brain imaging technology expert Song Hu, have received a high-priority, short-term $795,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to create a new, multi-purpose or, as Jia puts it, bi-directional neural fiber, capable of providing diagnostic information and directed treatment for Alzheimers.

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The fiber would be able to both read-out and write-in, Jia said. It would have electrodes inserted to scan neuroactivity, and stimulate neuron activity.

The team will have only about a year to work, based on the initial grant, though Jia says that the grant is transitional, meaning once they present their research, they will likely be awarded another, five-year grant to continue their work.

Some of the stories Ive seen on this have said that weve solved the problem, or that we will solve it in one year, Jia said. This work will more likely take a lot longer than is laid out in this grant.

The goal of the project, from an imaging standpoint, is first to pin down what causes Alzheimers to develop. According to Jia, it has long been suspected that Alzheimers develops from amyloid protein deposits in the hippocampus region of the brain, which may lead to decreased blood flow and neuron death. However, due to limitations in our current ability to see images of deeper regions of the brain like the hippocampus, the relationship is still unclear.

Once more in-depth imaging is achieved, the next goal of the project is to use electrical stimulation to help reestablish bloodflow and, ultimately, to administer anti-amyloid drugs using the fiber.

The goals of the project are complicated and ambitious and, according to Jia, are only possible with experts from many different disciplines working closely together.

For engineers, we have this capacity to be very creative in terms of solutions for problems, Jia said. For other disciplines, like neuroscience, everything starts with an understanding of the problem, and people spend years working to understand the problems. It is important for engineers to work alongside others to understand the problems, and to get their hands dirty in the lab, testing the solutions.

Jia has devoted a large part of her career as an engineer working alongside neuroscientists. Her grandmother and other members of her family have suffered from Alzheimers, she said, and her personal connection with the horrors of the disease have led her to use her own expertise to help others to help treat the as-yet incurable disorder.

As an engineer, I look for problems to solve, and Ive always been interested in brain disorders, Jia said. Many members of my family have been affected by the disease, and Ive seen how bad it can be.

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Virginia Tech engineering and science will blend to try to find Alzheimer's treatment - Roanoke Times