Dr. Vanessa Casha, a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA Brain Research Institute, received the 2025 Hereditary Disease Foundation’s Nancy S. Wexler Young Investigator Prize in recognition of her advancements in Huntington’s disease research.
The annual prize is awarded to an early-career researcher “whose work reflects the highest caliber of excellence diligence and creative thinking,” according to the foundation.
Casha was recognized for her research with her mentor, UCLA neurobiology professor Dr. Baljit Khakh, at the UCLA Brain Research Institute to advance understanding of the progression of Huntington’s disease. The disease is a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder that causes patients to lose neurons in brain regions responsible for movement, language, motor skill learning and cognitive function. There is no known cure and patients typically live 15 to 20 years after diagnosis.
“Her research zeroes in on two key cell types that are hit hardest in the brain in Huntington’s disease: astrocytes and striatal neurons,” the foundation wrote in a statement about Casha. “Using cutting-edge tools developed in her mentor Dr. Baljit Khakh’s lab, Dr. Casha is mapping out exactly where these proteins are located – on the cell surface, inside the cell, and even within the nucleus.
“By creating a high-resolution ‘protein map’ of these brain cells, she hopes to uncover which proteins are driving the disease and which could be part of the brain’s recovery process,” the foundation continued.
Casha said her research seeks to find the best therapeutic targets “to move us closer to changing the course of this disease.”
“I feel this award really underscores the value of this approach and it fuels the passion and urgency we have in doing this work,” Casha said.
The Hereditary Disease Foundation is a nonprofit research organization founded in 1968 by Dr. Milton Wexler. The prize is named after his daughter, Dr. Nancy Wexler, whose research resulted in identifying the genetic variant responsible for Huntington’s disease.
