Dr. Kaufman is a physician-scientist and adjunct assistant professor in the Memory and Aging Center in the department of Neurology. In her previous research, she established that disease-specific tau prion strains can lead to distinct patterns of tau pathology, rates of spread, and differential target specific brain regions. As a postdoctoral fellow, she established a novel iPSC-derived neuron model of tau aggregation, which enabled the investigation of different tau strains. She has conducted pilot CRISPR-based screens to uncover modifiers of tau strain accumulation. These results form the basis of the proposed research project, and Dr. Kaufman will continue to lead the cellular biology and CRISPR screening aspects of the proposed research. The proposed research is distinct from Dr. Kaufman’s previously funded research, since it involves structural characterization of disease-specific tau strains.