Research Supervisor Connect
Over 400 proteins are implicated in epilepsy. This project involves interrogating models of epilepsy to determine which are the key pathways and molecular mechanisms which could be targeted to prevent or stop an epileptic seizure. Proteomics and phosphoproteomics is being used to deep screen signalling pathways. Key pathways will be functionally validated and targeted using drugs and genetic tools.
Westmead - Childrens Medical Research Institute
PHD
Discovering and targeting signalling pathways in epilepsy.
The Synapse Proteomics group uses cutting edge proteomics and bioinformatics analysis to understand both normal and perturbed brain function. Many aspects of how brains adapt to stimuli at the cellular and molecular level are unknown. We study phosphorylation-based cellular signalling. Phospho-signalling is the earliest marker of proteins and pathways that are involved in neuronal activity. Signalling is discovered using phosphoproteomics in deep screens that result in data sets of tens of thousands of phosphorylation sites. This data is simplified using bioinformatics tools that are being developed in collaboration. The screens are followed functional assays to verify new mechanisms that can potentially be exploited to develop therapeutics for diseases. These functional analyses may use genetic tools such as CRIPSR-Cas9, viral vectors or knock out animal models in combination with electrophysiology and microscopy
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 2094