CONICET PhD fellow
Director: M. Soledad Celej
E-Mail: rqlcr90@gmail.com
PhD Thesis Topic
Liquid-Liquid phase separation of alpha-synuclein protein: implications for the aetiology of Parkinson’s disease
Biopolymer phase transitions have gained great relevance in cell biology as a general mechanism of spatiotemporal organization of biochemical reactions as well as their implication in several neurodegenerative disorders. Many of these condensates are formed by intrinsically disordered proteins, such as alpha-synuclein (AS) linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD). The formation of these condensates would increase the effective concentration of amyloidogenic regions thus favouring the formation of amyloid fibrils. The general objective of this project is to unravel the molecular and environmental determinants that modulate the phase behaviour of AS as an underlying mechanism leading to fibril formation in PD and other neurodegenerative disorders.