Improve Tau Tangle Detection with Emerging Plasma eMTBR-Tau

Alzheimer’s disease involves multiple pathological processes that emerge and evolve across the disease continuum, creating a need for biomarkers that capture different aspects of disease biology. Plasma phosphorylated tau biomarkers, particularly pTau 217, have demonstrated strong associations with amyloid pathology, however no single biomarker captures the full complexity of disease biology. This webinar explores how ultrasensitive protein detection enables the measurement of plasma eMTBR-Tau, an emerging blood-based biomarker associated with tau tangle pathology in Alzheimer’s disease.

Additional biomarkers are needed to investigate the accumulation of insoluble tau aggregates and neurofibrillary tangles, which are more closely associated with disease stage and cognitive decline.

The endogenous microtubule-binding region of tau, or eMTBR-Tau, is enriched in the filament cores that form neurofibrillary tangles. Emerging evidence indicates that specific MTBR-Tau fragments in biofluids may offer a blood-based window into tau aggregate pathology. Measuring these extremely low-abundance species in plasma, however, requires highly sensitive and specific analytical methods.

The webinar will provide an overview of an ultrasensitive, homogeneous, wash-free immunoassay approach and explain how standard qPCR readout support measurement of low-abundance protein biomarkers from 1 µL sample volumes. The featured speakers will also discuss the evolving landscape of blood-based tau biomarkers and explain how eMTBR-Tau offers distinct biological insights from established phosphorylated tau markers. The panelist will examine the potential role of plasma eMTBR-Tau in studying the transition from early amyloid-associated tau changes to more advanced tau tangle pathology.

The speakers will review results from amyloid- and tau-PET–characterized research cohorts. They will also discuss potential applications in Alzheimer’s disease research, biomarker validation, longitudinal studies and therapeutic development.

Register for this webinar to learn how eMTBR-Tau may expand the blood biomarker toolkit for investigating tau tangle pathology in Alzheimer’s disease.

Speakers

Thomas Karikari, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Biofluid Biomarker Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Thomas K. Karikari, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Biofluid Biomarker Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is also Principal Investigator of the Biomarker Core of the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Dr. Karikari’s research focuses on developing and validating blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, with particular emphasis on the biology, measurement and interpretation of tau biomarkers. His work has contributed to the development of multiple blood-based tau assays and to a greater understanding of how different tau species reflect distinct aspects of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Dr. Karikari earned his PhD in life sciences and neuroscience from the University of Warwick and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the University of Gothenburg. He has received international recognition for his contributions to Alzheimer’s disease biomarker research.

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Dr. Tracy Liu, Director, Product Management, Spear Bio

Before joining Spear Bio, Tracy Liu was Associate Director of Product Marketing at Quanterix, where she led strategic marketing initiatives for the Simoa® ultra-sensitive biomarker detection platform, including biomarker assay launches and cross-functional campaign alignment. She previously held senior roles in product management, marketing and technical service at Bio-Techne, Inscripta and Agilent Technologies, advancing innovative solutions in single-cell analysis, genome editing and next-generation sequencing.
Tracy holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Toledo and is passionate about translating complex life science technologies into impactful products that empower biomarker discovery and clinical research.

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