Project Title: Characterization of Microglial Pathology Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease
Supervisor: Professor Paul Matthews
Location: 4^th Floor, Burlington Danes, Hammersmith Campus

About Me

Having graduated with double BSc degrees in Biomedical Sciences from Queen Mary University of London (UK) and Clinical Medicine from Nanchang University (China), I was admitted by the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London to join Prof. Paul Matthews’ laboratory.

I currently live in London with my husband, and really enjoy the feeling of becoming an early-stage scientist, carrying out some interesting experiments that are hopefully the milestones of dementia research. In my spare time, I love writing novels and playing tennis, ping pong, and badminton. I also like rock climbing and bowling.

Qualifications 

2018 Aug - present	PhD in Clinical Medicine Research, Imperial College London, UK
2013 Sep - 2018 Jun	BSc in Biomedical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK BSc in Clinical Medicine, Nanchang University, China

Research Interests 

Microglia are the main form of active immune defense in the central nervous system, the critical role for which in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has been shown in numerous scientific studies. One probable mechanism of AD resides in increased microglial inflammatory activity and compromised microglial-mediated clearance for amyloid plaques and damaged neurons, and the AD progression seems to require the increase of a specific microglia subset, named disease associated microglia (DAM). However, although microglia are largely distributed around amyloid plaques in AD brain, it remains controversial whether microglia are truly related to amyloid plaque formation and maintenance. To date, the whole mechanisms underlying AD are rarely understood, and the shift between homeostatic microglia and DAM is also ambiguous. My research focuses on the relationship between microglia and amyloid in the progression of AD, using a knock-in APP^NL-G-F mice model, which has amyloid deposition and reduces the artifacts of gene overexpression.

Selected publications

Huang D, Wang Y, Tang J, et al. Molecular mechanisms of suppressor of fused in regulating the hedgehog signalling pathway. Oncology letters, 2018. 15(5): p. 6077-6086.

Presentations and Conferences 

Nov 2018	Attendance of Genomic Symposium of Imperial College London
Sep 2018	Attendance of UK Dementia Research Institute Connectome
Sep 2018	Attendance of Brain Sciences Retreat of Imperial College London

Contact Details

Email: j.tang18@imperial.ac.uk