Áine defends her PhD thesis

For her PhD research, Áine used a human stem cell model to understand differences in astrocytes, a star shaped brain cell, between those with Parkinson’s and healthy individuals. She was particularly interested in understanding the effects of mutations in a gene called LRRK2 in human astrocytes, as mutations in LRRK2 are the most common genetic cause of inherited forms of Parkinson’s.

For her PhD studies, Áine was supervised by Prof Siddharthan Chandran and Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj. She was also supported by Prof Dario Alessi (University of Dundee) and as part of this collaborative project Áine had the opportunity to undertake state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometry at the MRC PPU, Dundee.