Transcription of live discussion: Alzheimer genes in cortical development: how do their prenatal functions relate to dementia?

Jie Shen: We hope that if we can understand how PS1 regulates the cell cycle of neural progenitor cells during development, we might be able to figure out how PS1 regulates the cell cycle and fate of neural stem cells in the adult, which may be relevant to AD pathogenesis. Although PS1 is required for the regulation of the cell cycle, overexpression of PS1 may not have gain-offunction effects. Regarding neural stem cells in the adult, the problem is that there is no specific marker or promoter known to be selectively expressed in these adult neural stem cells. We are trying to get around the problem.