Dr. Goldstein has developed a breakthrough optical imaging device that is able to identify a marker of early Alzheimer’s disease. Eventually, such a test might be used to measure the effectiveness of new strategies to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s symptoms and to diagnose the disease in its earliest stages, when new treatments are likely to be most effective. Dr. Goldstein is associate director for Basic Research at the Center for Ophthalmic Research of the BWH Department of Surgery, a member of the psychiatry departments at MGH and BWH and the MGH Laboratory for Oxidation Biology, and assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Goldstein’s work is focused on understanding the role of abnormal protein aggregation in chronic degenerative disorders of aging. The work in his laboratory concentrates on Alzheimer’s disease, age-related cataracts, and other common diseases of aging that involve pathogenic protein aggregation. His team recently discovered the first evidence of Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid pathology outside the brain as well as a new transcription factor that plays a crucial role in cellular differentiation within the lens and brain. He and his laboratory are developing a laser-based diagnostic technology that will hopefully detect Alzheimer’s disease years before the first symptoms emerge.

The Rappaport funding provided salary and fringe benefit support to Dr. Goldstein during a time when he was pursuing continued funding for his important research.