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Study of aggregation and spreading of alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease
2020.10.19 |
| Date | Fri 30 Oct |
| Time | 13:00 — 15:00 |
| Location | Online via Zoom |
Friday 30 October at 13:00, Emil Gregersen defends his PhD dissertation entitled “Investigation of oligomeric a-synuclein: in vivo detection and cellular secretion”.
Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy are neurodegenerative disorders collectively known as synucleinopathies. The presynaptic protein α-synuclein is immensely involved in the development of the diseases, but the exact cause is not known. Normally, α-synuclein mainly exists as a disordered monomer, but under disease-development α-synuclein aggregates to form oligomers and fibrils, which can be found in the brain of synucleinopathy patients. To improve the ability to study the neurotoxic oligomers, we developed a method to detect aggregated α-synuclein down to picogram levels by using an antibody specifically detecting aggregated α-synuclein. The method was subsequently used to compare the composition of aggregated α-synuclein in brains from deceased patients suffering from dementia with Lewy bodies to the composition in healthy individuals. In addition, the PhD-project investigated a recently discovered cellular mechanism for its potential role in the release of aggregated α-synuclein. This is important to evaluate if the mechanism is involved in the prion-like spreading of α-synuclein between brain cells.
The summary is written by the PhD student.
The defence is public and will be held online on Zoom. Please read the attached press release for more information.
PhD student: Emil Gregersen
Mail: egregersen@biomed.au.dk
Phone.: (+45) 22710333