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Biography
Dr. Stephen Pasternak, MD/PhD is a Cognitive Neurologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative disease and a Scientist at the Robarts Research Institute at Western University (the University of Western Ontario) in London, Canada.
His laboratory at Robarts focuses on the basic biology, diagnostics, and treatment of neurodegenerative disease. He uses advanced microscopy techniques to study the production, degradation, and secretion of the proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyloid and alpha-synuclein. Current projects include the direct visualization of beta-amyloid secretion using Total Internal Reflection Microscopy and uptake by Macropinocytosis by Confocal Microscopy. He is also working on strategies to increasing lysosomal function using gene therapy in mice, and small molecules. This includes working with Zywie Bio LLC to test small molecules to increase lysosome function to clear beta-amyloid and tau in iPSC Neurons and mice. In addition, he has developed a new technique to profile plasma Extracellular Vesicles using nanoflow cytometry as a diagnostic platform for Alzheimer’s disease (PCT International Patent Application PCT/CA2023/051585 (Filed Nov 27 2023 Extracellular Vesicles for the Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Pasternak, Stephen and Leung Hon.) Funded by the Weston Brain Institute.
His clinic focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s dementia. He also participates in academic and industrial clinical trials, including Cassava, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), and the Canada-wide COMPASS-ND. He is currently completing his own Randomized, Double Blinded Controlled Trial of Ambroxol, an over-the-counter expectorant, that he has taken from the lab into a Phase 2 clinical trial in Parkinson’s disease Dementia. In this trial, 55 patients with Parkinson’s Disease Dementia were followed for 1 year to show that treated patients had improvements in biomarkers, including Plasma GFAP and CSF Tau 181 and beta Amyloid. (NCT02914366) Funded by the Weston Brain Institute.