Research Projects

As Europe’s population is ageing, long-term care for elderly citizens will become an increasing cost for society. To manage this transition healthcare policy in the EU and individual Member States are heavily focused on extending the independent life of the elderly, with the dual aim of increasing their quality of life and reducing the costs of...

Projections indicate that, by 2050, every person aged 85 years or more will be diagnosed with a cognition-related disease. While there is currently no clear strategy for curing such diseases, there are promising developments in the early diagnosis of disease and the inhibition of worsening symptoms. Building on results obtained during my post...

Growing evidence suggests that unbalanced Wnt signalling contributes to early stages of Alzheimer´s Disease (AD). mRNA levels of the Wnt antagonist Dikkoff1 (Dkk1) are increased in AD brains and by Amyloid-ß (Aß) in vitro. Importantly, suppression of Dkk1 activity protects synapses from Aß. Genome-Wide Association Studies also provide evidence for...

Most of secreted proteins transit through the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus. However, eukaryotic cells secrete cytosolic proteins, which do not enter the ER. Proteins that use this “unconventional secretory pathway” include factors with critical functions and deregulation of their transport is associated to a wide range of...

The aim of this action is to understand the mechanisms behind the susceptibility of enthorinal cortex II (ECII) neurons to neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation in Alzheimer´s disease. To do so we will modulate the expression of the genes that according to NetWAS (Network-wide Association Study) are more directly involved in NFT formation in ECII...

It is now increasingly clear that most of our genome is transcribed, but that only a small portion is associated with protein coding gene. Indeed, recent analysis indicate that long non-coding RNA outnumbered by five fold the coding RNA sequences. Despite this abundance, very little is known on the function of these long non-coding RNA. The aim of...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a crucial problem in our society, raising the need for new therapeutic targets. Evidence suggests multiple non-neuronal cells are implicated in the systemic deficits of AD, but the complex cellular diversity in the brain hampers the investigation of specific cells and their interactions. Moreover, the course of the...

What defines the functional specialization of a cell is its unique proteome. Proteins need to be translated and properly folded to ensure their biological function. Several protein quality control pathways have arisen during evolution, some of them specialized in monitoring protein folding in specific organelles . As a result of ageing, animals...

UpSurgeOn is an Italian SME established in 2017, by Neurosurgeons for Neurosurgeons, with a focus on creating a educational platform composed by different educational apps, training and simulation devices actually in the Neurosurgical arena. We have 15 employees, including a combination of neurosurgeons, software developers, technicians and...

The French SME Amoneta Diagnostics has previously developed a diagnostic kit for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on two blood biomarkers that are scientifically proven to be associated with AD. The company holds the intellectual property for specific fluorescent probes that can detect these biomarkers in small amounts of blood using flow cytometry....

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia that affects one in 14 persons over the age 65 years and one in six persons over the age of 80 years. Increased deposition of the protein beta-amyloid (Aß) is a core brain pathology of AD that occurs years before the onset of clinical symptoms of dementia. Together with Aß...

Research in recent years has started to provide an alternative view to Alzheimer's etiology emphasizing the role of other factors such as inflammation and brain vascular alterations in the development of Alzheimer. Of major interest is the link between AD and hypertension, another global epidemic affecting millions of people worldwide. Hypertension...