Professor of Biology (CAS) and Biochemistry (BUSM) Andrew Emili and Professor of Pharmacology (BUSM) Ben Wolozin have received a joint NIH/National Institute on Aging R01 grant ($3,945,190) entitled “Systems-level functional proteomics analysis assemblies in Alzheimer’s disease and mouse models of tauopathy”. The goal of this proposal is to comprehensively map and identify the subnetworks of synaptic protein complexes that are central players in the synaptic dysfunction occurring with neurodegeneration. Drs. Emili and Wolozin will use the emerging power of quantitative network proteomics to systematically characterize the major protein assemblies present at normal and diseased synapses on a proteome scale. This research will be propelled by recent discoveries demonstrating that a dynamic network of protein interactions drives tau biology and changes with the course of disease. Interpreting these perturbed assembly networks, though, demands knowledge of the localization and compositional specificity of such complexes. They hypothesize that selective disruption of specific synaptic protein assemblies mediates the functional degeneration associated with tauopathy. Their unbiased interactome screening technology is uniquely suited for global interrogations of synaptic protein networks remodeled during disease progression.