Contact information
Team members
-
Samrajni Banerjee
Postdoctoral research Associate
-
Delphi MacWhite-Begg
Postdoctoral research Associate
Collaborators
-
Kevin Talbot
Head of Department and Professor of Motor Neuron Biology
-
Alexander Thompson
Associate Professor
-
Martin Turner
Professor of Clinical Neurology & Neuroscience
-
Elizabeth Gray
Senior Clinical Project Manager
-
Laura Parkkinen
Professor of Translational Neuropathology
Ruxandra Dafinca
MSc DPhil
Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Leader Fellow
- Group Leader in the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery
- Member on the Board of Examiners for MSc in Neuroscience
Exploring dysfunctional signaling pathways in neurons from ALS/FTD patients
Research summary
I am leading a programme of research investigating the intracellular signaling pathways that drive synaptic deficiencies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) in neurons derived from patient induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
After completing my DPhil in Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford, in 2013 I joined the Oxford MND Research group where I have developed and implemented the differentiation of iPSCs from ALS/FTD patients to motor and cortical neurons in a dish. Using iPSC-neurons, we aim to determine regulatory pathways affected by disease by implementing the use of spatial proteomics combined with transcriptomics and live imaging. The overarching goals of our work are to mechanistically understand the disease at the cellular level and to identify new therapeutic targets that can inform drug development for ALS and FTD.
My team's research is funded by Alzheimer's Society, My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, Motor Neuron Disease Association, Oxford University's John Fell Fund, Medical Sciences Division Pump-Priming Award.
If you are interested in collaborating with us or joining our group, please get in touch!
Current open positions
Research Assistant : I am recruiting an enthusiastic Research Assistant to work on subcellular fractionation in iPS-neurons and TDP-43 aggregation models! If interested, please apply here by the 19th May.