Areas of investigation/research focus

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or Huntington’s disease are age-associated disorders characterized by the accumulation of aggregated proteins, alongside with the dysfunction and death of certain types of neurons in the brain. These diseases affect many millions of people worldwide, and we still do not have effective disease modifying therapies. Thus, unraveling the molecular underpinnings of neurodegenerative diseases is an urgent unmet need.

In my laboratory, we employ a variety of molecular and cellular approaches in order to investigate the causes and consequences of protein aggregation in the cell (the cellular phase of the disease, as shown in the figure), and how this relates to neuronal death and brain dysfunction. Importantly, our translational approaches are also focused on biomarker discovery, as it is believed that effective therapeutic strategies will depend on early interventions.