Areas of investigation/research focus

My scientific work connects patient-related research with basic science, with the aim of develop new diagnostic and therapeutic concepts. We use both information from clinical research to develop and improve disease models, and new concepts from preclinical research to be validated in human patients. We concentrate our research on diseases defined by pathological propagation and aggregation of the alpha-synuclein (e.g. Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, multisystem atrophy) and the tau protein (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, forms of frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration). Both alpha-synuclein and tau are considered as proteinaceous infectious particles, which chronically and progressively infect brain cells. Susceptibility and resilience factors are a focus of our research. The primary goal is to develop novel clinically meaningful diagnostic tools and therapies.