Dr. Carlo Condello is an Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology and the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND). He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX, and his PhD from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL) where he used novel optical imaging approaches and animal models to study the kinetics and toxicity of β-amyloid deposition and the role of microglia in Alzheimer's disease (AD) with Dr. Jaime Grutzendler. Following graduation, the lab moved to Yale University, where Dr. Condello completed a project related to his thesis as a postdoctoral fellow.

As a postdoc with Dr. Stanley Prusiner at UCSF, he developed several novel optical imaging tools, including noninvasive in vivo methods employing a bioluminescent genetic reporter of astrocytosis or near-infrared amyloid-binding dyes to monitor disease progression and therapeutic intervention in mouse models of AD, tauopathy, and prion disease. In collaboration with protein chemists, he developed a new technique using confocal spectral imaging and environment-sensitive probes to decipher and catalog conformational variants (“strains”) of Aβ and tau deposits in the brains of AD patients and transgenic rodent models, which may have implications for developing more informative molecular diagnostics and strain-specific therapeutics. Dr. Condello continued these studies as a Group Leader (adjunct faculty) in the IND, where he led a team of scientists in developing new rodent models and human cell assays to study prion biology, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in vivo. Notably, he also directed collaborations with drug discovery scientists at the IND to discover new approaches to slowing prion propagation and neuropathology.

Now in his own independent lab, Dr. Condello’s research program aims to elucidate molecular pathways in microglia that govern protein aggregation and neurodegeneration using in vivo rodent models and human cultured cells. His lab is also keen to understand how genetic risk factors expressed by microglia augment conformational heterogeneity of amyloids and associated pathobiological mechanisms that lead to formation or clearance of specific strains. To address these important topics, the Condello lab is implementing a sophisticated interdisciplinary approach that spans advanced optical imaging, cell and molecular neuroscience, biophysics, and chemical biology methods.