Immune Response
The effects of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are vast—and very personal. The financial costs to society run into the hundreds of billions, while the toll on the millions of patients and families impacted by these diseases is incalculable.
As lifespans increase, Alzheimer’s deaths have doubled since 2000, and the number of Americans facing the disease is projected to nearly double by mid-century. Today there are few effective treatments. But there’s hope.
In 2024, the family of the late David and Mary Harrison committed $30 million to launch the Harrison Family Translational Research Center in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. It’s a collaborative research hub where an interdisciplinary team of scientists and physician-investigators will explore new avenues of inquiry aimed at diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and other devastating neurological conditions. This gift, funded by the Harrison Foundation and the Mary Anderson Harrison Foundation, secured physical space for the center within the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, a new state-of-the-art biomedical research, development, and manufacturing facility scheduled to open at UVA’s Fontaine Research Park in 2027.
Renowned UVA neuroscientist John Lukens (Med ’08), a Harrison Teaching Professor and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the School of Medicine, was chosen to lead the center and assemble a world-class team of researchers to advance its mission.
Not unlike the brain cells Lukens studies, the Harrison Center is part of a complex, interconnected, and highly functioning research system within the University. The center is positioned as the nexus between all neuroscientific research at the University and the Manning Institute, which will accelerate and expand the translation of fundamental discoveries in health science into next-generation therapies for a broad range of illnesses. The center also aligns with the Brain and Neuroscience Grand Challenge initiative, one of the University’s primary research foci and investment areas.
TARGETING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Lukens joined UVA School of Medicine in 2014, establishing his lab in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). He and his team examine interactions between the immune and nervous systems to identify new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and autism. Lukens’ research has attracted millions of dollars in support from the National Institutes of Health, the Owens Family Foundation, the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Department of Defense, and others.
Lukens isn’t just developing innovative approaches to combating neurodegenerative disease; he’s also developing other future fighters. A devoted mentor, Lukens has helped launch the careers of numerous like-minded researchers through his lab. “They become like family,” he said. “The opportunity to help young people develop is why I went into academia.”
The award-winning immunologist finds promise in his proteges and also in his lab’s work exploring the link between the immune system and neurodegenerative disease. “Ten or 15 years ago, research in the neurodegenerative space was almost exclusively looking at neurons,” Lukens said. “But we’ve learned that glial cells, which we previously thought were just a glue that held neurons together, play an important role in disease by helping to destroy pathogens.”
Lukens believes an immunological approach can ultimately detect and treat the full range of neurodegenerative conditions by responding to stressors that can kill neurons. “We’re identifying key players that we can target through therapeutics to turn down or enhance the immune response to protect the brain,” he said.
ACCELERATION THROUGH COLLABORATION
His proven success, interdisciplinary approach, and optimistic determination make Lukens ideally suited to lead the Harrison Center. Lukens envisions the center “kickstarting some of the amazing basic discoveries taking place in Charlottesville and at UVA.” It will also accelerate the process of taking those ideas from the lab to clinical trials, manufacturing, and, finally, patients.
To unlock new treatments and cures for neurodegenerative diseases, Lukens aims to break down the silos traditionally found in academic medicine. “We have an opportunity to bring together a network of people who share a common goal but are coming at it in different ways,” he said.
Once construction of the Manning Institute building is completed, experts from different disciplines—including medicinal chemistry, nanotechnology, and immunology—will co-locate in the 350,000-square-foot facility. “We’re creating an environment where MDs are sitting right next to basic researchers,” Lukens said.
The Harrison Center will also be a place where Lukens can continue his own neurodegenerative disease research. He anticipates his Lukens Lab team developing gene-based treatments that their biomedical engineering colleagues could then effectively deliver to the brain. “It’ll be easier to do something like that if we’re in the new space, taking advantage of new technology.”
Such technology, in the form of equipment and infrastructure, is an essential aspect of the Harrison family’s funding. “We’ve already purchased some microscopes that have cut down tremendously the time it takes to do some of the critical experiments we’re doing in the lab,” he said. “That component of the gift is making a big difference.”
DISCOVERING HOPE
These new resources and tactics fuel Lukens’ hope. “I think we’ll have treatments for most of the major neurodegenerative diseases within 20 or 30 years,” he said. He sees promising parallels in the ongoing fight against cancer. “When I was in graduate school, the idea of cancer immunology was on the fringes. If you fast-forward 20 years, now we have the first new cancer drugs in a long, long time that are immunology-based therapeutics, and they are saving lives.”
Lukens says philanthropy is the key to discovering similar defenses against neurodegenerative disease. “There's a lot of really good science that's not getting funded,” he said. “But there's an opportunity for philanthropy to play a role in accelerating research that could have a huge, huge impact.”
A version of this article appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Envision from UVA Advancement Communications.