Alpha Synuclein, cellular dysfunction and Parkinson disease

National Institute On Aging

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Our work on a-synuclein is currently focussed on applying large scale screening approaches to understand the pathobiology associated with this protein, which is now known to not only be a marker of disease but also plays an active role in disease progression. We have been working on high content imaging approaches to follow synuclein uptake and toxicity in cells in culture. We have been able to show that a variety of cell types can uptake preformed fibrils that are labelled with fluorophores to allow for simple assays of internalization. The ongoing objective of the work is to port this assay into a multi well format so we can then screen siRNA libraries for genes that modify uptake.