Project Title: The role of LRRK2 in microglial senescence in Parkinson’s disease
Supervisor: Dr Nurun Fancy, Dr Paul Matthews, Dr Raffaella Nativio, Dr Diego Gomez-Nicola
Location: Level 7, Sir Michael Uren Hub, White City Campus, 86 Wood Lane, W12 0BZ
About Me
I am a PhD student in the Fancy group in the Department of Brain Sciences within the UK Dementia Research Institute centre at ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ. My project is focused on the role of LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase) in driving pathology induced senescence in microglia in Parkinson’s disease. I am passionate about microglia, the resident immune cells in the brain and their role in Parkinson’s disease! I am using post-mortem brain tissue containing varying degrees of pathology and examining the spatial relationships between alpha-synuclein, LRRK2 and senescent microglia using imaging mass cytometry (IMC).
I am also working with induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived microglia carrying the LRRK2 mutation to see the effect this gene in driving pathology-induced senescence in microglia. Before starting my PhD, I was working as a research assistant within the phenotyping team in bit.bio, a Cambridge-based synthetic biology company focused on generating iPSC-derived cell types through inducible over-expression of selected transcription factor combinations.
Qualifications
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BSc Neuroscience, King’s College London, 2018-2021
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MSc Translational Neuroscience, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ, 2021-2022
Presentations and Conferences
Contact Details
Email: ashlesha.patil21@imperial.ac.uk
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