PhD Scholarships in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Macquarie University, Australia (2016)

A number of 3 year PhD scholarships are available for domestic and/or international students to investigate mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in Motor Neuron Disease (MND)/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Spinocerebellar Ataxia (SCA).

The first project will involve the use of transgenic mice and zebrafish, and biochemical and cell biology approaches to probe cellular signalling pathways including protein degradation, RNA dysfunction, and cellular trafficking pathways.

The second project will investigate cellular stress responses and protein aggregation in neuronal and transgenic mouse models using biochemistry, advanced proteomics and fluorescence microscopy. Potential disease-modifying therapeutics will also be tested in transgenic mice, involving surgery and behavioural studies.

A third project will investigate the role of glia in the molecular pathogenesis of disease, and in particular using sophisticated live-imaging approaches in transgenic zebrafish to observe disease mechanisms at single-cell resolution.

A fourth project will explore molecular origins of ALS/FTD using proteomic approaches, to understand the sequence of events that lead to the formation of pathological protein inclusions, and how these cause impairment in cellular function.

A fifth project will explore the motor disorder spinocerebellar ataxia-3 (SCA3). This project will explore the role of calcium dysregulaton and related stress responses in the pathogenesis of SCA3 using transgenic zebrafish, with a particular focus on testing relevant small compounds for disease treatment.

All projects aim to contribute to the understanding of the molecular defects in disease and to identify new avenues for therapeutic development.

Further details:
http://www.universitypositions.eu