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| August 4, 2006
Galvan-ized at the Buck BY JACOB SHAFER
Never fear: Veronica Galvan is on the case. Employed by Novato’s prestigious Buck Institute for Age Research since 1999 as a postdoctoral trainee and later staff scientist, Galvan is considered one of the country’s leading AD researchers. Her work focuses largely on revealing the underlying causes of AD, identifying its precursors and early warning signs and, ultimately, discovering ways to better treat, and even prevent, the disease. “Ways to stop [AD’s] progression, or even more to prevent or greatly delay its appearance might be ready at hand in statistical terms, and hopefully in terms of effective treatments sometime very soon,” says Galvan. What she means by “statistical terms” is that the disease can be avoided in the general population—though perhaps not in every specific case—with some basic lifestyle changes. “Keep yourself mentally and physically active,” she encourages. “Stay away from long-shelf-life highly processed foods that use artificial preservatives and keep your blood pressure controlled.” Sounds like simple, common-sense advice. And in a way, it is. But it’s also profound in the sense that only recently have scientists begun to understand that many of the same things that make people more susceptible to heart disease and stroke can bring on AD—a realization that could lead to huge strides toward more effective treatments. But Galvan’s work isn’t all about telling people to eat better and get more exercise. Explaining what she and other Buck scientists do with any degree of nuance requires the use of some pretty technical language that whizzes right over the heads of most people. Asked to put her highly complex efforts, and some of her more important breakthroughs, into layman’s terms, Galvan says, “Since I joined the Buck Institute, my work has been focused on the processes that contribute to pathology in AD, using molecular biology and a mouse model of the disease as tools. We were lucky to discover that an event that takes place inside brain cells, downstream of the production of a sticky protein fragment called amyloid-beta—which is the main source of toxicity in AD—is required for transgenic mice to develop AD-like deficits. These mice produce abundant amyloid-beta; however, they do not develop ‘mouse AD.’ I’m very excited about this observation, not only because we might have discovered one of the processes by which amyloid exerts toxicity, but also because we may now be able to look at the processes that make these animals resistant to high levels of amyloid. It is known that a significant number of people accumulate amyloid-beta to high levels but do not develop cognitive deficits. The processes that underlie this inherent resistance to toxicity, however, are still completely unknown. It might be extremely important to figure them out, since toxicity in AD could be tackled not only by removing its source, but also by increasing the resistance to it.” Got that? Good. Galvan, who has a noticeable but far from impenetrable accent, long brown hair and an attractive, youthful face, was born in Buenos Aires. As a young child, she attended Our Lady of Misericordy School. It was there that she met Sister Valeria McCarthy, a biologist who had several doctoral degrees encompassing botany, zoology, evolutionary biology and anthropology. “She put together the school’s Cabinet of Natural Sciences,” remembers Galvan of her early mentor. “It had a collection of mammals, birds and butterflies second only to Buenos Aires’s Natural Science Museum. She even had a real shrunken head that was given to her by a tribe in the Amazon!” Galvan also cites her parents as an important early influence. During her childhood, they gave her a pair of highly influential gifts: a 22-volume set of encyclopedias and a large chemistry kit replete with glass test tubes and wooden tube holders. After studying biology and medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, Galvan left Argentina to attend the University of Chicago, where she earned a Ph.D. in virology. While doing her doctoral work, Galvan met Dale Bredesen, president and CEO of the Buck Institute. This was in 1999, the same year that the Institute opened its research facility. Now, Galvan is one of the facility’s leading scientists, having helped jump-start a number of exciting discoveries. “Working at the Buck Institute is wonderful,” she says without hesitation. “The beginnings were more difficult. We were isolated up there on Mount Burdell. But in the last couple of years the place has bloomed. The lab building is already completely full and space had to be borrowed from the administrative building so that new laboratories and more people can be accommodated. We have cutting-edge technology and core facilities working and available to all researchers, and at our current size there are no significant delays or difficulties to access these resources—it is really a paradise for research. If you have questions that require consultation outside of your field of study, in many cases you don’t have to go very far to get a good, in-depth discussion with somebody that may have the expertise and the knowledge. Our support personnel are experienced and truly supportive. Speakers come from all over the U.S. and from abroad to give seminars; we host international conferences. It’s a great time to be here.” PHOTO BY ROBERT VENTE: Veronica Galvan, pictured, and other Buck Institute researchers are scurrying toward an Alzheimer’s breakthrough. |
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With the baby boomer generation heading rapidly toward retirement age, pressure has increased on the nation’s doctors and scientists to find cures and treatments for age-related afflictions. Foremost in the minds of many is Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating ailment that impairs memory and basic functions and that affects some 4.5 million Americans, a number many worry could grow exponentially as the country’s population skews older. |
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