Research Projects

Smart textiles that provide a seamless command-oriented user interface and have capable of wireless communication, have become active research field in recent decades with interest of wearable and attractive platforms. Well-known mechanical requirements such as light weight, compactness, and flexibility, that smart components should be invisibly...

This project aims to help people with dementia engage in social contexts to improve psychosocial wellbeing. People who are affected by Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias often face cognitive, behavioural and psychosocial difficulties, including impairment and degeneration of memory and of perceptions of identity. In a social context, this can...

This fellowship will co-develop, implement and evaluate the I-Do service to increase the socio-cultural participation and empowerment of people living with mild to moderate stages of dementia (PLWD) through an interdisciplinary engaged research approach that combines service design and psychology with a co-design methodology. This user-friendly...

MRI is indispensable in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. These are poorly understood while their prevalence and socio-economic burden continue to rise. Structural and functional MRI can provide biomarkers for early diagnosis and potential therapeutic intervention. My research vision is to develop novel MRI methods for structural and...

The goal of BATCure is to advance the development of new therapeutic options for a group of rare lysosomal diseases - neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCL) or Batten disease. There are > thousand affected across Europe, with a combined incidence of c.1:100 000. The NCLs are devastating and debilitating genetic disorders that mainly affect children...

How lipids are regulated on a global scale during vascular inflammation is not known. Thus, a major challenge exists to describe and catalog the total lipidome, in particular enabling the identification of new biologically active lipids, and description of changes. This is analogous to ‘omics’ of DNA, RNA and protein, but instead describing...

Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that currently affects 2% of the population in industrialized countries; the risk of LOAD increases in individuals beyond the age of 70 and it is predicted that the incidence of LOAD will increase 4-fold within the next 50 years which may cause a great socioeconomic problem...

In this work, I propose the use of a nano/microfluidic system to detect biomarkers relevant to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The use of this system could give earlier and more accurate diagnoses, as well as provide the opportunity for therapeutic interventions and effective disease monitoring. Prior to the diagnosis of dementia and even before the...

Neurodegenerative disorders such as, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and chronic stress create a major economic burden to society and a substantial reduction in quality of life for patients and families. The development of neuroregenerative therapies is notoriously difficult and...

A striking challenge in diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases is the design of drugs capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a tightly regulated barrier that prevents the passage of drugs from the blood to the brain. In vitro cellular BBB models are available, but they mimic only healthy conditions without taking into...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the major cause of dementia which has no cure at the moment. The overall aim of the work described in this proposal is to create a long-term strategic partnership between Sheffield University (UK), Lisbon University (Portugal), Eli Lilly (UK) and Biofordrug (Italy) in order to develop chemical biology tools for better...

The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a common cause of early-onset dementia that presents with changes in behavior and personality. It is often misdiagnosed and mistaken for a psychiatric disorder, such as depression or bipolar disorder. Unlike with Alzheimer’s disease, we still lack reliable tests that enable a diagnosis...