My name is Salma Leyasi. I am a PhD student in the Biological Design program here at ASU. I previously graduated from ASU in 2020 and rejoined the lab in 2024. One of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is variations of the BIN1 gene. My project focuses on modeling BIN1 risk mutations using advanced genome editing approaches to generate isogenic human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines. These lines will be used to isolate the impact of each BIN1 variant and dissect cell type–specific mechanisms across neurons, astrocytes, and other glial cell types.

 

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