Michael D'Andrea, PhD

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

Slidomics; LLC; Johnson & Johnson Pharma

Areas of Interest: 

Alzheimer's disease, histopathology of AD

Biography & Research: 

He has authored over 100 scientific publications, including invited review papers on AD, and co-invented 11 patents. His technical expertise is in the areas of histopathology/neuropathology, immunohistochemistry, and image analysis. Since 1996, he was Team Leader and Principal Scientist of Target Validation Team at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development. There he discovered and validated novel targets, biomarkers, and compounds to treat cancer, inflammatory diseases, and AD, and accepted numerous awards for these endeavors. Currently, he is president and histopathologist at Slidomics, LLC. He was one of the first to relate the presence of intracellular Abeta42 in AD neurons to senile, dense-core plaque formation not by deposition, but through neuronal lysis that triggers the inflammatory responses that inflict to additional neuronal death, independent of Abeta. He characterized the existence of plaques types based on their origin of formation, and provided histopathological evidence of apoptotic neuronal death through an autoimmune mechanism in AD, suggesting that AD is an autoimmune disease. Most recently, he published a book entitled “Bursting Neurons and Fading Memories: An Alternative Hypothesis of the Neuropathology of AD”. Furthermore, Michael has animated the “Inside-Out”, or more recently referred to as the “Bursting” or "Lytic" hypothesis that is available on YouTube (enter: Alzheimer's hypothesis), and is currently working on a follow-up book to be published March, 2016 entitled "Intracellular Consequences of Amyloid in Alzheimer's Disease."