Funded Studentship "The Influence of Tau Pathology on Hippocampal Neuron Function"

As part of a BBSRC-funded Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP) between Eli Lilly and Company Ltd and the University of Cambridge, we have a 4-year fully-funded PhD position available. The project will use a method developed at Eli Lilly and further characterised in our laboratory to study the functional consequences of seeding tau pathology in organotypic slice cultures. Tau pathology is one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and pathogenic tau species have been found to seed tau pathology in other tissue. By studying this in slice cultures, we can readily investigate both the seeding mechanism and its consequences for the function of neurons and synapses in electrophysiological studies, and we can ask whether these can be alleviated for example by blocking microglia. The successful candidate will use tissue from transgenic mice to establish and maintain slice cultures in the Coleman laboratory, working alongside experts in this method (Harwell and Coleman, Mol Neurodeg 2016), and characterise their electrical properties in the Karadottir group, interacting with substantial expertise in patch clamping. Eli Lilly will contribute additional method development during a period hosted in Windlesham, Surrey, a training programme with other CTP students, tau seeding material and intellectual input. The student will become proficient in mouse genetics, cell and tissue culture, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, electrophysiology, western blotting and molecular biology.