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June 5, 2025

Katy Walsh, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kozberg Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Her research focuses on cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), a common small vessel disease that can cause hemorrhagic stroke and is a leading cause of cognitive impairment in older people. 

Genetic variations in apolipoprotein E, a protein that helps the brain function, may alter a person’s risk of developing CAA. Walsh’s idea was to study a rare, newly identified variant that may improve blood vessel function by removing protein waste that otherwise builds up in the brain. With no cure currently available for people with CAA, understanding what causes the disease is a crucial step that could lead to new treatments. 

“We really need treatment options for people with CAA, and this could lead to the first one,” she said.

The first grant Walsh applied for was the Sacco Scholars Program, a scholarship program from the AAN and the American Heart Association—and she got it. The program offers two $150,000 scholarships each year for early career trainees researching brain health. It honors the late Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS, FAAN, FAHA, who served as president of both organizations and made the program possible through a generous bequest.

“It was really amazing news,” she said. “I was already excited about my project, but to get your first grant is pretty special.”

Before her current work in Boston, Walsh began her research with a master’s degree in genetics at the University of Glasgow. She did a placement unit at a lab that worked on placental function and became interested in cardiovascular function, which led her to apply for a PhD through the British Heart Foundation. She earned it at a vascular lab with projects focusing on amyloid buildup in Alzheimer’s disease—work that highlighted for her the importance of vascular neuroscience research.

“We have all of these Alzheimer’s therapies coming through, but they’re not curing the disease,” she said. “They’re not even preventing it. They’re slowing progression, but there’s still decline. That’s why I think the vasculature is a good target, and this award through the AHA and the AAN is a really exciting opportunity.” 

The other 2025 recipient of the Sacco Scholars program is Hortense Triniac, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Zheng Laboratory of the Versiti Blood Research Institute and Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Triniac is studying whether the interactions of two proteins produced naturally in the liver can reduce the risk of stroke.

Apolipoprotein B (apoB), the first of the proteins, causes the production of “bad” cholesterol. This cholesterol enters the bloodstream and may induce a chronic inflammatory response that can lead to plaque buildup and clots in the arteries. The other protein, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), breaks down blood clots to allow blood to flow. A synthetic version of this second protein is used in clinic to promote blood clot breakdown after ischemic stroke. Zheng Lab’s previous studies showed that tPA interacts with apoB and lowers its lipidation in the liver, resulting in a reduced secretion of harmful cholesterol particles in the circulation. When there are higher concentrations of tPA in the liver, there are lower levels of “bad” cholesterol. 

Triniac, who previously researched how tPA impacts brain cells and especially neurons, decided to investigate whether liver tPA lowers the risk of stroke by reducing lipid accumulation in blood vessels and improving blood clot breakdown. This research could lead to better stroke treatment and prevention.

It was with this project in mind that she and her mentor found the Sacco Scholars program. 

"We discovered that this new scholarship matches perfectly our research project, and we said, 'OK, let’s just try it and see.'"

Triniac got her master’s degree in Paris, beginning with a broader focus on neuroscience and later zeroing in on the cellular and molecular side of the field. She then found a lab in Caen, France, where she earned her PhD and began her work on tPA. The human brain had fascinated her for a long time, and the more she learned, the more she understood the pressing need for research. 

“A lot of diseases impacting the human population are located within the brain—stroke, neurodegenerative disease—and we are still often unable to treat them,” Triniac said. “The more work we put into neuroscience research, the more we can understand those pathologies and diseases and provide better managements and treatments.”

Triniac knows it can be difficult to find opportunities to do this key research—especially as an early-career researcher who is just getting started in their contributions to the field.

“This scholarship isn’t just giving you money to do your research,” she said. “It’s also providing us with many professional opportunities by bringing us to events that help us network, meet new people, and get feedback on our work. Programs like this encourage young people to do more research, create more knowledge in neuroscience, and improve global brain health. It’s important to help people continue on this path and show them that they can be researchers.”

Applications for the 2026 Sacco Scholars Program will open in December 2025, and information will be available here.