Dr A Loreto
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a well-known neurodegenerative disorder affecting around 10 million people worldwide. Despite the availability of therapies to temporarily control the symptoms, we still lack disease-modifying treatments. This project will investigate mechanisms that lead to the death of neurons and why some neuronal populations are more vulnerable in people with PD.
We have characterised a preventable axon-death pathway (Wallerian pathway) controlling the degeneration of injured axons, a process known as Wallerian degeneration (Conforti et al., 2014). This study will assess whether this pathway is also involved in axonal and neuronal death caused by PD-related stimuli. In humans, a single, heavily branched axon projecting from a single dopaminergic neuron (the type that is preferentially affected in PD) is predicted to be around 4 meters long when all branches are included. The metabolic demand of supporting this extreme length is believed to contribute to the vulnerability of these neurons and, indeed, axons are the first neuronal sites to die in PD patients. Our preliminary data suggest a role for the Wallerian pathway in this process, partly reflecting its activation when mitochondria are impaired. The project will involve a combination of cellular and molecular biology techniques, live-cell imaging and confocal microscopy with expert training available in each case. These studies could greatly advance our understanding of mechanisms of neuronal death in PD, and in other disorders where axons degenerate such as multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease and peripheral neuropathies. The project also has important clinical implications since the Wallerian pathway can be potently blocked, and will take place in an environment where there is extensive interaction between clinicians and basic scientists.
The successful applicant will be based in Professor Michael Coleman laboratory, at the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair.
Funding Notes
Funding deadline is 5th December 2018 for start in October 2019. When applying indicate on the application the funding options (GATES USA *deadline 10/10/18*, Gates Cambridge or other Cambridge Funders). Home/EU and International applications are all considered for funding.
Further information can be found on our website https://www-neurosciences.medschl.cam.ac.uk/workandstudy/postgraduate-training/postgraduate-admissions/
References
Conforti, L., Gilley, J., and Coleman, M.P. (2014). Wallerian degeneration: an emerging axon death pathway linking injury and disease. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 15, 394–409.
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