Umesh K. Jinwal is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. He received his PhD in biotechnology from the Central Drug Research Institute, Barkatullah University, in Bhopal, India. He has postdoctoral experience in neuroscience, entomology, and cancer research. Dr. Jinwal is actively involved in teaching and training PharmD and research students. Dr. Jinwal’s laboratory uses genetically modified human cells, C. elegans, and mouse models to study the complex mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Jinwal’s ultimate goal is to discover new drugs for treating AD and other neurodegenerative diseases by understanding the molecular mechanism behind the pathogenesis of these diseases. He has applied for several patents; has published more than 49 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and 100 abstracts in scientific meetings; and his work has been cited over 1,000 times by researchers across the globe.
"The current absence of drugs to cure AD could be due to a poor understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in AD progression, and the limited number of viable protein targets that potentially could be modified by drugs. Here, we propose to use a unique combination of in vitro and in vivo studies to understand the molecular mechanism of a chaperone protein, Cdc37, in tau and tau kinase regulation during AD pathogenesis. Successful completion of the proposed study may provide some evidence for the use of Cdc37 as therapeutic target for AD and other related disorders."