The Fisher Memory Initiative

Memory is not stored in the brain like a file placed in a drawer. It is an active, evolving process. A memory may begin in one part of the brain, then gradually reorganize across larger networks until it becomes more stable over time.

Dr. Rajasethupathy’s laboratory studies this process in detail. Her team develops advanced brain imaging technologies, long-term recording methods, genetic mapping tools, and behavioral approaches that allow researchers to follow memory as it forms, changes, and stabilizes.

This work has important implications for Alzheimer’s disease. If scientists can understand how the brain normally routes memories into longer-term storage, they may be able to identify where the process breaks down—and how it might be repaired.

One of the most promising ideas explored through the Fisher Memory Initiative is that the brain may contain alternate memory pathways that can compensate when other circuits are damaged. In Alzheimer’s disease, this raises a fundamental question: Can scientists help the brain bypass damaged areas and rely more effectively on healthier memory circuits?

The hippocampus is a key brain region for forming new memories. Yet memories do not remain there indefinitely. Over time, they are reorganized and stabilized through communication with other parts of the brain.

Dr. Rajasethupathy’s research has identified a surprising and important role for the thalamus, another brain region once considered a relay station for information stored elsewhere. Her lab’s work suggests that the thalamus in fact helps maintain memories by coordinating communication between the hippocampus and the cortex—the brain’s outer layer, which supports perception, planning, language, decision-making, and other higher-order functions.

The lab has also identified multiple thalamo-cortical loops and molecular “timers” that appear to operate across different time scales. These systems may help determine how memories are gradually transferred, routed, and stabilized.

For Alzheimer’s research, this opens an important new direction. Rather than focusing only on one brain region or one disease hallmark, the Fisher Memory Initiative aims to identify the specific molecules, cell types, receptors, and circuits that may be targeted to support memory function more directly.

The goal of the Fisher Memory Initiative is to gain a better understanding of memory in order to explore new therapeutic possibilities.

Dr. Rajasethupathy’s team is currently working to identify molecules, cell types, and circuits that may be targeted to that end. One especially promising area involves G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)—a class of proteins found on the surface of cells that help transmit signals. GPCRs are already major targets in modern medicine, and the lab has identified a cell-type-specific GPCR target in the thalamus that affects memory formation.

The Fisher Memory Initiative will also support further study into how memories are formed and stored over time; genetic and computational analyses to identify memory-related mechanisms; drug screening and preclinical validation; and the development of specialized technologies needed to study memory with greater precision.

In collaboration with the Fisher Center Lab, this work will help connect fundamental discoveries about memory to the broader search for new Alzheimer’s treatment strategies.

Memory loss is one of the most painful and personal symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. It affects what a person can recall but also how they move through daily life, recognize loved ones, maintain independence, and hold onto a sense of self.

By focusing on the brain systems that make memory possible, the Fisher Memory Initiative addresses this central challenge of Alzheimer’s disease from a new angle.

This research could shed light on critical problems, such as:

• How does the brain decide which memories to keep?
• How are memories transferred from short-term to longer-term storage?
• Which circuits are most vulnerable when memory begins to fail?
• Can healthier pathways compensate for damaged ones?
• Which molecules and cell types offer the best targets for future therapies?

These are ambitious questions, but they point toward the possibility that memory loss may one day be treated—not only by addressing the visible hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, but also by strengthening, redirecting, or repairing the brain’s own memory systems.

The Fisher Center Targeted Therapies Initiative for for Memory Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease reflects the Fisher Center Foundation’s commitment to supporting bold, early-stage research with the potential to open new paths toward treatment.

Dr. Rajasethupathy’s work begins with the basic science of memory—how it forms, where it travels, and how it endures. But its long-term goal is deeply practical: to identify strategies that may one day help protect memory in people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

Alzheimer’s takes memories away. We seek to understand memory deeply enough to defend it.