Eugenia Trushina, PhD

“I believe this is a big problem—narrow specialization, not listening carefully, not putting 2-and-2 together.”

With the ongoing shortage of physicians in the United States impacting the field of medicine more and more, there has been a cause for concern with an increasing number of aging, comorbid patients. The neurology field has felt this pressure, perhaps even more so.

For Eugenia Trushina, PhD, this has led to an increased need to communicate and pay attention to as much as possible across the different specializations in neurology. The associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester explained that her life’s work in mitochondria-targeted therapies ultimately came about by her desire to learn from others, and being open to attending presentations in different specializations. 

She expressed hope that those coming into the field now will take care in choosing which conferences and meetings to attend to best optimize their ability to learn, as well as their time—which has become so precious for clinicians and researchers alike.

At the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s 19th Annual Conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, 

 sat with Trushina to discuss this importance of communication and understanding between specialties.

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For the associate professor of neurology, learning, listening, and collaborating are the keys to improving the field of care.

Eugenia Trushina, PhD: Communication and Learning Through Collaboration

“How can we think about mitochondria as a therapeutic target?”

At the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s 19th Annual Conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, Eugenia Trushina, PhD, an associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester, presented her and her colleagues work with a small molecule that targets mitochondria as a possible treatment for Alzheimer disease.

This novel approach to the condition has already been supported by feasibility trials. The compound she and her group are using, while not novel itself, is a Complex 1 inhibitor—not unlike metformin. Although, as Trushina would point out, unlike metformin, the inhibitor her group is working with does not have the blood brain barrier issues that metformin does. Thus far, there has been no evidence of off-target interactions with the new compound.

To discuss the possibility of mitochondrial targets in medicine, Trushina sat with NeurologyLive at the ADDF’s meeting.

The associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic spoke about targeting mitochondria to treat neurologic disorders.

Author | Eugenia Trushina, PhD

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Eugenia Trushina, PhD: Communication and Learning Through Collaboration

Eugenia Trushina, PhD: Mitochondria as a Therapeutic Target for Alzheimer