Project Title: The role of LRRK2 in microglial senescence in Parkinson’s disease
Supervisor: Dr Nurun Fancy, Dr Paul Matthews, Dr Raffaella Nativio, Dr Diego Gomez-Nicola
Location: Level 7, Sir Michael Uren Hub, White City Campus, 86 Wood Lane, W12 0BZ
About Me
I am a PhD student in the Fancy group in the Department of Brain Sciences within the UK Dementia Research Institute centre at Imperial College London. My project is focused on the role of LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase) in driving pathology induced senescence in microglia in Parkinson’s disease. I am passionate about microglia, the resident immune cells in the brain and their role in Parkinson’s disease! I am using post-mortem brain tissue containing varying degrees of pathology and examining the spatial relationships between alpha-synuclein, LRRK2 and senescent microglia using imaging mass cytometry (IMC).
I am also working with induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived microglia carrying the LRRK2 mutation to see the effect this gene in driving pathology-induced senescence in microglia. Before starting my PhD, I was working as a research assistant within the phenotyping team in bit.bio, a Cambridge-based synthetic biology company focused on generating iPSC-derived cell types through inducible over-expression of selected transcription factor combinations.
Qualifications
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BSc Neuroscience, King’s College London, 2018-2021
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MSc Translational Neuroscience, Imperial College London, 2021-2022
Presentations and Conferences
Contact Details
Email: ashlesha.patil21@imperial.ac.uk
LinkedIn: ashlesha-patil-854543179
