Ryan Baumert, PhD
Ryan received his bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from New York University, where he studied the transcriptional elements that generate neuronal diversity in the Drosophila optic lobe. He then went on to pursue his doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Pierre McCrea at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he discovered and investigated novel molecular switches that control hippocampal neuron development. Ryan joined the Eroglu Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in 2021 and is currently investigating the molecular mechanisms that underlie synapse development and proteostasis, as well as their dysfunction, within the context of neurodegenerative disorders.
Liam Eade, PhD
Liam is a postdoctoral researcher in the Alessi group at the University of Dundee. He completed a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Auckland, focussing on investigating the interactions between proteins and metal-based anticancer agents using mass spectrometry and crystallography.
Chloe Flitton
Chloe is a PhD student in the MRC PPU at the University of Dundee under the supervision of Professor Dario Alessi. She graduated from the University of Liverpool with an Integrated Masters in Biological Sciences, with her work focusing on the role of endolysosomal dysfunction in neurodegenerative disorders such a Niemann-Pick Type C Disease, and the Parkinson's Disease causing mutation VPS35 D620N.
Patrick Kearney, PhD
Patrick is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the lab of Subhojit Roy at the University of California, San Diego. His graduate research at the University of Massachusetts Medical school focused on the dynamics of dopamine transporter (DAT) trafficking and how it influences dopamine signaling. He also studied how Parkinson's risk factors influence DAT trafficking and motor behaviors. His postdoctoral research focuses on developing CRISPR-based Parkinson's disease therapeutics and testing them in in vivo models.
Yasmine Nonose, PhD
I am a researcher specialized in neurochemistry and brain metabolism. I have a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy and 10 years of experience in preclinical research. During the course of my scientific career, I have been granted 2 international scholarships (Institute Pasteur - Korea and University of Lausanne - Switzerland) by scientific merit and project originality. My Ph.D. thesis was selected to compete at national level for best writen document and scientific merit in the category of Biological Sciences at CAPES (Funding Research Agency in Brazil). I have a keen interest to work with iPSC and molecular biology/gene-editing techniques. I believe they are fascinating tools that can help preclinical research deliver more translational solutions. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYSCF, where I am responsible for handling microglial cell differentiation across different cell lines in order to unravel intrinsic phenotypes related to Parkinson's Disease.
Niels Pagani, BSc
Niels is a Visiting Graduate Student in the lab of Andres Leschziner at UCSD.
Roman Pantazopoulos
Roman is a second year undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. The Parisiadou Lab is Roman's first experience in a research setting, though he has past exposure to neurodegenerative diseases through volunteering in memory care facilities at local nursing homes.
Jaijeet Singh, MSc
Jaijeet Singh is a PhD student in Dario Alessi's lab, where his research focuses on identifying interactors of Rab proteins, which are phosphorylated substrates of LRRK2, a gene associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). His work aims to uncover the proteins that interact with these phosphorylated Rab proteins to gain a deeper understanding of the molecular pathways involved in PD pathogenesis. Prior to joining the Alessi Lab, Jaijeet served as a research assistant under Prof. Sonia Gandhi at The Francis Crick Institute and UCL. During this time, he contributed to a project focused on mapping and visualizing oligomers in Parkinson's disease human brain tissue. Jaijeet holds a Master’s degree in Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics from University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Lorenz Studer, MD
Lorenz Studer, MD, is the director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and a member of the Developmental Biology Program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His lab has established many of the currently available techniques for turning human pluripotent stem cells into the diverse cell types of the nervous system. He has also been among the first to realize the potential of patient-specific stem cells in modeling human disease and in drug discovery and has developed strategies to measure and manipulate cellular age in pluripotent-derived lineages. Finally, he has a major interest in regenerative medicine and currently leads a multidisciplinary consortium to pursue the clinical application of human stem cell-derived dopamine neurons for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Recent awards recognizing Dr. Studer’s work include a MacArthur Fellowship, the Ogawa-Yamanaka Prize and the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine.
Karan Thakur, MSc
Karan is a PhD student in Neuroscience at the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. During his master's at the National Research Council of Canada, he investigated how binding of alpha-synuclein to the inflammasome adaptor protein, ASC, elicits inflammatory responses in microglia. Among his awards is the Award of Excellence in Graduate Studies – M.Sc. in Neuroscience, awarded by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa.
Francesca Tonelli, PhD
Francesca is a Senior Research Scientist in the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee (UK). Francesca's studies on LRRK2 contributed to the discovery that a subset of Rab GTPases are the physiological substrates of LRRK2 kinase, and subsequent identification of Rab29 and VPS35 as upstream regulators of the LRRK2 pathway.
Yirong Xu
I am a researcher specializing in immunology and molecular biology, with a primary focus on the interactions between the microbiota and the immune system, as well as the relationship between the genome and Parkinson’s disease. I have extensive experience using advanced techniques such as flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and gnotobiotic murine models to study the the relationship between the genome and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.
