Keynotes
Every year, we invite renown researchers to join us and give us their insight and guidance.
We are happy to announce this year...
Dr Maria DOITSIDOU
Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
RESEARCH
Neurodegenerative disease and microbiota interactions
Dr. DOITSIDOU's group aims at investigating the molecular mechanisms of neuronal degeneration and the effects of gut microbiota in neurodegenerative disease.
Current studies focus on:
The microbiota in Parkinson’s disease: investigation of bacteria present in the gut of Parkinson’s patients at different abundances that in healthy controls for their effects in C. elegans models of Parkinson’s disease.
Mechanisms of Bacillus subtilis protection against alpha-synuclein aggregation: investigation of the effects of probiotic bacteria present in over-the-counter products using C. elegans models of neurodegenerative disease.
Mechanisms of dopaminergic neurodegeneration : study of the molecular mechanisms that safeguard the structural and functional integrity of dopaminergic neurons throughout life.
Dr. Tanmay BHARAT
Cambridge, England
RESEARCH
Electron tomography of prokaryotic cell surfaces
Dr. Bharat's team uses electron tomography, combined with several structural and cell biology techniques, to study cell surfaces of prokaryotes at the atomic level. Surface molecules mediate cellular interactions with the environment and play important roles in key processes including cell adhesion, biofilm formation and antibiotic tolerance in pathogenic bacteria.
They aim to push the boundaries of cellular structural biology, with technical developments aimed at identifying molecules on cell surfaces, and resolving their high-resolution details in prokaryotic cells. While structural biology of many cell surface molecules reveals fundamental information about bacteria and archaea, our work has clear biomedical relevance, for example surface molecules allow pathogenic bacteria such as P. aeruginosa to evade antibiotics with biofilm formation.