ILP, Honours, MSc, PhD

Project: The characterisation of biological pathways and other biomarkers for the development of treatment and diagnostic strategies in MS and neurodegenerative diseases.

Discipline: Neurology

Project level: Project can be tailored to all levels

Supervisory Team: Bruce Brew AM, Dr Michael Lovelace & Dr Gayathri Sundaram

Project commencement: Variable

Summary: Currently there is a lack of effective treatments for a broad spectrup of acute and chronic neurological diseases. In many neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and Alzheimer’s disease, there is no cure, and the majority of patients continue to deteriorate over time. There are some similarities between the diseases in that the overall symptoms are generally driven by the death of neurons or associated oligodendrocytes (cells which envelop adjacent neurons in layers of insulating myelin protein needed for the successful transmission of nerve impulses between neurons).

Our research group is interested in a number of research areas including how we can:

* Modulate the kynurenine pathway to promote mobilization of adult brain stem cells.

* Understand the kynurenine pathway in different phases of Multiple sclerosis to predict disease progression.

* Design potential therapies for Multiple Sclerosis including antibodies directed at specific targets in the kynurenine pathway.

* Investigate novel biomarkers in neurodegeneration (i.e. BCL11b protein) to explore underlying molecular or pathological activity.

Contact: Dr Michael Lovelace at m.lovelace@amr.org.au

Potential Projects

1) Pathophysiological characterisation of Kynurenine pathway activation and dysregulation in Multiple Sclerosis. (Tissue microarray)
     
2) Genetic characterisation of Kynurenine pathway activation and dysregulation in Multiple Sclerosis. (Taqman array)
     
3) Single cell RNA profiling of mouse & human induced pluripotent stem cells during precursor phase and differentiation - discovery of therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases.
     
4) A putative blood brain barrier permeable kynurenine 3-monooxygenase inhibitor intervention in a Multiple Sclerosis Mouse Model. 
     
5) Adaptive and behavioural changes in KMO and QPRT conditional knockout mice: Relevance to Multiple Sclerosis.
     
6) Does the MS drug Laquinimod regulate Kynurenine pathway in mouse and human neural stem cells during neuroinflammation?
     
7) How does the neurotoxin Quinolinic acid affect the regenerative capacity of human neural stem cells?
     
8) Role of Kynurenine Pathway in Monocytes in Multiple Sclerosis.