September 2026 News

September 17, 2026

Awards, New Papers, and Announcements

• MPIs: Caryl Sortwell and Scott Counts, Co-Is: Joe Patterson and Roger Albin (UMich) were awarded $715,336 from NIH-NINDS to study “Development and Validation of a Rat Model of Dementia with Lewy Bodies” 08/20/2026 – 08/19/2028
  
  
• Da-Woon Kim, Napissara Boonpraman, Nathan C. Kuhn, Shreesh Raj Sammi, “WAC loss alters food-associated behavior and physiological homeostasis with stage-associated cholinergic dysregulation in Caenorhabditis elegans”, Neurochemistry International, 2026, 106240, ISSN 0197-0186, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuint.2026.106240.
  
  
• Boonpraman N, Kim DW, Tislerics E, Barot J, Pacheco-Cruz D, Kuhn NC, Vogt D, Sammi SR. Neurobehavioral Impacts of the Autism Risk Gene, WAC: Studies Involving C. elegans and Mice. Mol Neurobiol. 2026 Jun 5;63(1):678. doi: 10.1007/s12035-026-05964-z. PMID: 42247028; PMCID: PMC13241405.
  
  
• Dr. Nick Kanaan was awarded the MSU Research Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar Award to support two years of a new postdoc.
  
  
• Dr. Nick Kanaan was awarded $49,785 from ABLi Therapeutics, Inc. “Generation of Novel Recombinant ppY39 α-Synuclein Antibodies” 09/01-26 -01/01/27
  
  
• Dr. Matt Benskey was chosen to be the next Translational Neuroscience CAC Representative.
  
  
• Dr. Matt Benskey (PI) has been awarded $94,200 by MADRC to study “Therapeutic Development of Bioengineered Synaptic Complement Inhibitors”. 07/01/2026 – 06/30/2028