Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration

Current research

• 3D Alzheimer’s disease ‘brain on a chip’.
• 3D motor neuron disease cell model.
• Olfactory stem cells as a new approach to understand dementia, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron disease.
• Monocyte-derived microglia for testing of patient responses to neuroinflammatory-modulating compounds in dementia and motor neuron disease.
• iPSC-derived human microglia, and brain organoids for investigating neuroinflammation
• Development of a new blood brain barrier cell culture model.
• Investigating the role of air pollution in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.
• Metal-drug therapeutics and diagnostics for brain disorders.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Alzheimer’s disease 3D ‘brain on a chip’.
• New cell models to understand the role of patient-derived microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Generating Alzheimer’s microglia for testing patient responses to immune-modulating compounds
• Olfactory stem cells for investigating the causes and progression of dementia
• Air pollution and dementia
• Metal-drug therapeutics and diagnostics for brain disorders.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following organisations and funding bodies:

• Australian Research Council.
• National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
• Alzheimer’s Australia.
• Motor Neuron Disease Research Institute of Australia.

Internal Collaborators

• Dr Christine Guo, Translational Neuroscience
• Professor Greg Anderson, Iron Metabolism
• Dr Guy Barry, Neurogenomics
• Dr Michelle Lupton, Genetic Epidemiology
• Professor Kum Kum Khanna, Signal Transduction
• Associate Professor Michelle Hill, Precision and Systems Biomedicine

External Collaborators

• Dr Katja Kanninen and Dr Tarja Malm, A.I. Virtanen Institute, Kuopio, Finland.
• Dr Lezanne Ooi, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Wollongong, Australia.
• Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, Griffith University, Australia.
• Professor Vincenzo La Bella, University of Palermo, Italy.
• Dr Alexandra Grubman, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
• Professor Paul Donnelly, School of Chemistry and Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia.
• Dr Luke Knibbs and Professor Zoran Ristovski, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
• Dr Jeffrey Liddell and Dr Peter Crouch, Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Australia.
• Professor Jari Koistinaho, A.I. Virtanen Institute, Kuopio, Finland.
• Professor Ashley Bush and Professor Colin Masters, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia.
• Associate Professor Elizabeth New, University of Sydney, Australia.
• Associate Professor Ian Blair, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.