Fernando R. Goni, PhD

I am currently Research Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. For the last 22 years my interests and research have focused on protein interference and immune intervention to treat and prevent neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) with special emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Prion Diseases. Previously, I was associated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine at the Department of Pathology during the 1980s and part of the 1990s.

While working in protein chemistry to determine antibody structure and function and selection of autoantibodies in Dr Blas Frangione’s laboratory in 1984; I concurrently steered the incipient AD research in the lab to a new direction becoming the first scientist to purify the paired helical filaments (PHF), which are a hallmark of AD, and separate the PHF from the amyloid Aβ deposits.

During the 1990s I returned temporarily to the University of Uruguay where I established a laboratory specializing in determining the relationship between parasite proteases and the evolution of the human immunoglobulin structure, while at the same time keeping a Research Assistant Professor Adjunct position collaboration with NYU Grossman SoM to determine the mutations that would induce fibrillar or amorphous deposition of misfolded immunoglobulins.

In 2002 I returned to NYU Grossman SoM to develop protein interference and immunotherapies for neurodegenerative diseases in the laboratory of Dr Thomas Wisniewski. My strong background in protein chemistry, immunology and AD has been instrumental in developing the first mucosal immunizations with PrP that induced partial protection in orally vaccinated white tail deer, animals naturally at risk of prion infection. We were awarded three patents for mucosal immunization in prionoses.

In 2011 I moved back full-time to NYU Grossman SoM and have since been awarded eight patents for different active and passive treatments of conformational NDD including the production of anti-β-sheet monoclonal antibodies (the only existing antibodies recognizing a secondary structure of proteins). I was instrumental in developing a specific pan-immunization that could target specifically pathological oligomeric proteins/peptides in AD and prionoses in large animals, to eventually treat humans in the future. I successfully proved this anti-oligomeric vaccination to be therapeutic in many AD mouse models with both Aß and tau pathology. I developed few stable monoclonals that all cross-bind pathological oligomeric Aß amyloid and Tau PHF structures in human AD brains; and different oligomeric PrP in prion diseases (including human CJD). The decades of fruitful collaboration with Dr Thomas Wisniewski in pursuing treatments for AD and NDD crystallized in many patents and successful therapeutic approaches in AD animal models..

Lately, I determined a previously unknown target α-helix sequence in human ApoE; I designed peptides to bind and interfere with the pathological function derived from that structure; determined the peptides to be suitable in silico and in vitro for anti-fibrillogenesis on Aβ, and proved them to be therapeutic on AD mouse models crossed to human apoE2, 3 and 4.