Research Projects

Our memories are arguably what make us who we are, making dementia a particularly cruel disease. Decades of research have revealed that two interconnected brain regions, the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and hippocampus (HP), are required for successful spatial memory formation in mammals. Each region contains specialized neurons that fire...

Socio-economic needs for advances in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) are more pressing than ever. Lessons learned from clinical trial failures have led to important conceptual advances. The field notably shifted away from a purely neurocentric view, largely since Genome-Wide Association Studies identified several risk genes that are...

In 2010, 800 billion Euros was spent on brain diseases in Europe and the cost is expected to increase due to the aging population. – Here I propose to exploit our new discovery for research to alleviate this disease burden. In work selected by Nature Medicine among the top 10 ”Notable Advances” and by Science as one of the 10 ”Breakthroughs of the...

The theoretical understanding of human motor control and learning has a strong impact on the diagnosis and treatment of motor disorders, and vice versa. Recent progress has been made in the understanding of motor control and learning, particularly with respect to understanding the functional role of neuro-behavioural variability that is inherent to...

The project TREM2MICROENGINES aims at demonstrating that raising and restoring TREM2 expression in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Nasu–Hakola disease (NHD) patients, and in particular in their microglia, would result in therapeutic benefit.AD is a severe neurodegenerative disorder that represents the most frequent form of dementia among...

Despite enormous research efforts across academia and pharmaceutical industry, all clinical trials over the last decade have failed in finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) which remains one of the greatest challenges in drug discovery. Taking consideration all together three prevailing AD hypotheses: Amyloid Cascade, Metal Ions and...

Kinesin-1 transports cellular cargos along microtubules as part of neuronal transport. The localisation of kinesin-1 in neurons is tightly controlled to ensure the coordinated delivery of specific cargoes to the regions where they are required. One mechanism of control is through microtubule regulation, but the details of this are not well...

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...

TWIN2PIPSA will improve R&I capacities of FC.ID/ULisboa (Portugal) in the field of protein folding biophysics and conformational diseases by partnering in joint Twinning activities with three world-leading research and technological development performers: the University of Cambridge (UCAM), the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), and Tel Aviv...

Protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) are a large group of human disorders caused by protein misfolding and include serious conditions with high socio-economic impact, such as Alzheimer’s disease, systemic amyloidosis, obesity, cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa and type 2 diabetes. The vast majority of them remain incurable so there is currently a...

Neurodegenerative diseases are a global epidemic with significant health, social and economic implications and despite intensive research, there is still no cure for them. Alzheimers disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurological disorder having symptoms of the progressive memory loss, neuronal cell death, loss of immune response and cognitive...

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...