The lab, in collaboration with John Cirrito (Neurology) and Carla Yuede (Neurology), was recently awarded a Hope Center Pilot Project award to study the ‘glymphatic’ system and Aß clearance. Darshan, here in the Dougherty lab, discovered a novel form of one of the ubiquitious water channels in the body, aquaporin 4. This novel form appears to be present in the brain, specifically in places where the levels of water in the brain’s filtration system could be controlled. In this collaboration, we’re hoping to look at whether this novel form of aquaporin facilitates “flushing” brain fluids of potentially toxic compounds, like the Aß plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.