Todd Cohen and Jonathan Schisler were awarded $3.1 million for a new research grant from the National Institute on Aging titled “Dual CHIP Functions Control Tau Triage in Alzheimer’s Disease”. The five-year award combines the expertise of the two young investigators, allowing them to study novel concepts of the regulation of tau, a protein that accumulates and aggregates in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Cohen, an assistant professor of neurology in the UNC Neuroscience Research Center, is an expert in tau biology, focusing on how tau is modified and how these modifications contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive dysfunction. Schisler, an assistant professor of pharmacology in the McAllister Heart Institute, is an expert in CHIP biology (C-terminal Hsc-70 interacting protein), an enzyme that functions as a key regulator of protein quality control, particularly in age-related diseases. The study will define the critical events that occur during early-stage tau triage, a time period during which aberrant tau aggregation is counteracted by a neuroprotective, compensatory response that involves the activity of CHIP. The goal of the study is to provide a new framework to better understand and target pathological tau species to alleviate tau-mediated toxicity and neurodegeneration in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.