Research Projects

Accumulation of neurotoxic amyloid beta peptides (Ab) in the brain is considered to be the central event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Ab is released from the beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) during specialised processing events. This proposal aims to examine presenilin 2 (PS2) protein-mediated molecular and cellular events...

Amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) is a normal product of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) proteolysis in the brain. While Abeta synaptotoxicity has been extensively studied as central to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, the mechanisms by which physiological Abeta regulates synapse function remain unknown. Utilizing two-photon excitation laser...

Neurodegenerative diseases all cause damage to the circuitry of the nervous system, with loss of connections, axons and neurons. The loss can be gradual, as in Alzheimer’s disease, rapid as in stroke, or intermediate as in the delayed neuronal loss after stroke. Following damage, the nervous system is able partially to compensate through the...

Population in Europe is ageing rapidly. Consequently, there is an urgent need to find ways to help the growing population of older people to live independent lives and preserve well being into old age. To address this pressing issue, PMinMCI will conduct the first systematic and innovative investigation of prospective memory in older adults at risk...

This research project deals with the role of protein aggregation in several human diseases which are connected to the formation of fibrillar protein structures. Currently, no effective pharmaceutical treatment is available for these diseases, a fact which reflects our present lack of understanding of the molecular mechanism responsible for their...

The overall prevalence of brain disorders – both neurological and psychiatric – is very high in Europe. Although it is well known that the burden and costs of these disorders are high, there is evidence that the overall, personal, social and economic costs of brain disorders have been underestimated because of the lack of valid and reliable...

The pathological Ab peptide that accumulates in senile plaques in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains is derived from a precursor protein APP. Although etiology of AD is complex, genetic evidence shows that duplication of the APP gene locus leading to elevated levels of APP protein is sufficient to cause early-onset AD highlighting the importance of...

An important aspect of chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s or prion disease, is the generation of an innate inflammatory reaction within the central nervous system. Microglial cells play a leading role in the development and maintenance of this inflammatory reaction, showing enhanced proliferation and...

The life essential element iron is required as a cofactor in central nervous system metabolic processes, but unbound iron catalyzes the production of toxic reactive oxygen species. Neuronal iron accumulation is a common pathological feature in the cortex in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the substantia nigra (SN) in Parkinson’s disease (PD), and the...

Protein Kinases (PKs) are involved in various human pathologies such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases or can be targeted to alter the life cycle of various parasites such as those responsible neglected parasitic diseases such as leishmaniasis and malaria. There are no physiological events not involving significant changes in protein...

Collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP2) is essential for neural development and function. It promotes axon growth but upon its phosphorylation it mediates axon retraction. Deregulation of CRMP2 has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) where CRMP2 was detected to form hyperphosphorylated aggregates within neurofibrillary tangles. The...

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a major health problem in aging societies. Remarkable progress in the study of the rare genetic forms of the disease has lead to the identification of several key players like APP and the secretases, but the molecular basis of sporadic AD remains largely unresolved. The convergence of several factors (multicausality) has...