The GABAeron Team

Dr. Mahley is an internationally known expert on heart disease, cholesterol metabolism, and, more recently, Alzheimer’s disease (AD). He studies plasma lipoproteins and particularly apolipoprotein (apo) E, the major genetic risk factor for AD. His seminal research has defined apoE’s critical role in cholesterol homeostasis and atherosclerosis. He has also made fundamental contributions to understanding the role of apoE in the nervous system and neurodegenerative disorders. These findings laid the groundwork for the explosion of research linking apoE4 – a variant of apoE – to the pathogenesis of AD and neurodegeneration. He has published over 300 research articles.

With colleagues, he found that genetic mutations or small-molecule structure correctors that block domain interaction reverse apoE4-induced impairment of neurite outgrowth, mitochondrial dysfunction, increased hyperphosphorylation of tau, generation of neurotoxic apoE4 fragments, and impaired apoE4-induced learning and memory deficits in mouse models. Small molecules that convert apoE4 to an apoE3- or apoE2-like molecule prevent the apoE4-associated neuropathy. Translation of these research findings into the development of therapeutic approaches for the treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders has led to co-founding a company (ESCAPE Bio, Inc.).

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee, in 1963, Dr. Mahley completed both an MD and PhD at Vanderbilt University in 1970. He founded the Gladstone Institutes in 1979 and served as the president until 2010. Presently, Dr. Mahley is president emeritus of the Gladstone Institutes and professor of pathology and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Xu has extensive experience in molecular and cell biology. Specifically, she has led the development of an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuron model of AD. She has also managed the establishment of multiple human neuron-based assays for screening small-molecule compounds. She has successfully applied CRISPR technology in iPSCs and animals for genome editing. After her postdoctoral training at the Gladstone Institutes, she focused her research on AD translational studies for over 10 years as a group leader on new target validation and assay development.

Most recently, at the Gladstone Institutes, she has led a small research group and collaborated with internal and external researchers to move therapeutic projects forward. Her studies contributed to several patents and patent applications. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China in 1993, and obtained her PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry in the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. Her postdoctoral training was completed at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

Dr. Huang is director and senior investigator of the Center for Translational Advancement at the Gladstone Institutes and professor at the departments of neurology and pathology, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Huang has been studying the pathogenesis of AD, focusing on the roles of apoE4 – the major genetic risk factor for AD – using transgenic and gene-targeted mouse models, mouse primary neurons, and human neurons derived from iPSCs. His laboratory demonstrated that apoE4 is cleaved by a neuron-specific protease, leading to the generation of neurotoxic fragments that contribute to AD pathogenesis. His laboratory also showed that expression of apoE4 or its fragments causes age-dependent impairment of GABAergic interneurons in the hippocampus of mice, leading to learning and memory deficits, which can be rescued by transplanting GABAergic neuron progenitors. He has been heavily involved in identifying strategies for the treatment or prevention of AD by targeting apoE4, including the development of apoE4 structure correctors and protease inhibitors, and stem cell therapy.  Dr. Huang has published more than 120 scientific papers in the field of apoE, AD, stem cell research, and drug discovery. He is a scientific co-founder of GABAeron, Inc.

Dr. Huang earned an MD from Qingdao Medical University in China in 1985 and a PhD in biochemistry and pathology from the Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing in 1991. He then trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Münster, Germany and at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.

Dr. Ding has pioneered the development and application of innovative chemical approaches to stem cell biology and regeneration, with a focus on discovering and characterizing novel small molecules that can control various cell fate/function, including stem cell maintenance, activation, differentiation and reprogramming in various developmental stages and issues. Dr. Ding has published over 140 research articles, reviews and book chapters, and made several seminal contributions to the stem cell field and drug discovery. 

Dr. Ding is the Dean and Bayer Distinguished Professor in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is also the founding Institute Director of Global Health Drug Discovery Institute in Beijing, a joint venture of Tsinghua University and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Ding also holds a joint appointment as William K. Bowes, Jr. Distinguished Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, and professor in the department of pharmaceutical chemistry, University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his BS in chemistry with honors from the California Institute of Technology in 1999, and a PhD in chemistry from the Scripps Research Institute in 2003. Dr. Ding is the co-founder of several biotechnology companies, including GABAeron, Inc.