Supervisor: Carsten Korth
Department of Neuropathology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf , Germany
My master studies were done at University of Coimbra, in Portugal, where I the master in cellular and molecular biology, with specialization in neurosciences. In the second year of my Master, I performed my master thesis at Janssen Pharmaceutica, in Belgium, where I optimized an in vitro Tau seeding and aggregation model, with the objective of creating a platform to study pathological mechanisms that occur in Alzheimer’s disease, and that are associated with aggregation of Tau protein.
As part of In-SENS training network I am a PhD student working in the ESR1 project, and my focus will be the interactions and functions of Disrupted in schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) protein in mental disorders. Previous results from our group demonstrated that DISC1 form insoluble protein aggregates in a similar fashion of diseases characterized by protein aggregation, e.g.Tauopathies, and synucleopathies, among others.
According with this I am mainly interested in the effect of DISC1 aggregation on the interaction of this protein, leading to a loss or gain of molecular interactions in mental disorders. The main work of this project will be performed in a transgenic animal and also in cell lines. This project will include a variety of cellular and molecular techniques that can elucidate the molecular mechanisms of DISC1 aggregation pathways in these diseases.
