Abigail Nordbeck
Neuroscience researcher and first author of a 2026 spatial study of the human hippocampus in Down syndrome with Alzheimer's disease, which found mTOR and insulin signalling disturbed in specific cell layers
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (at the time of the study, 2026)
Almost everyone with Down syndrome has an extra copy of the amyloid precursor protein gene on chromosome 21, and Alzheimer's disease changes in the brain are common as they age. Abigail Nordbeck's 2026 study, with Ann-Charlotte Granholm as senior author, examined post-mortem hippocampus, the brain region central to forming memories, from people with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's neuropathology.
The team combined spatial transcriptomics, which measures gene activity while keeping its location in the tissue, with localized proteomics, which measures proteins in small chosen regions. mTOR pathway signalling was significantly altered in particular hippocampal subfields, and insulin pathway signalling was altered mainly in dentate granule neurons. In other words, the disturbance is local and cell-type specific rather than spread evenly through the tissue. The authors present these as preliminary observations in human tissue; they show associations and cannot say whether the changes cause the disease or follow from it.
PubMed lists Nordbeck at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for this study. A current position could not be confirmed from an official page.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | M | Disruption of hippocampal upstream regulators of mTOR and insulin pathways in Down syndrome with Alzheimer's disease neuropathology: Preliminary observations NOR2026 First author: ran the spatial transcriptomic and proteomic analysis showing subfield-specific mTOR and dentate-neuron-specific insulin pathway changes in Down syndrome with Alzheimer's neuropathology. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Abigail Nordbeck.
ShowHide
- Ann-Charlotte Granholm Neuroscientist of aging who has studied Down syndrome and the Alzheimer's disease that often comes with it since the 1990s, now a professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- Beatrix M. Ueberheide Mass spectrometry and proteomics specialist who directs NYU's proteomics core and contributed the protein profiling to the Down syndrome hippocampus mTOR study.
Every researcher with a profile →
Thank you. That helps us know which pages have been read by someone who knows the work.
Thank you. We will check it and correct the page.
Thank you. Your answer was counted anonymously.