Dr Ruxandra Dafinca
Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Leader Fellow
Principal Investigator
Contact
ruxandra.dafinca@ndcn.ox.ac.ukResearch group
We always welcome enquiries about opportunities to join our group and discussions for collaborations.
My research interests focus on understanding how proteins and organelles interact at the subcellular level in neurons and how they become altered in neurodegenerative diseases. To address this, I integrate approaches from spatial proteomics, machine learning, super-resolution and ultrastructural imaging with patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) neurons. My overarching goal is to identify and validate new therapeutic targets for dementia and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
My main areas of interest are:
Understanding how mitochondrial dysfunction leads to synaptic failure in ALS and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Presynaptic mitochondria are involved in many cellular processes that are relevant for neuronal function and support synaptic transmission, which breaks down in ALS. Our group is investigating mechanistic links between mitochondrial activity and synaptic transmission. This work is funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Identifying local presynaptic molecular dysfunction in ALS iPS-derived neurons. In work funded by My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, we are integrating multi-omics with imaging to explore early presynaptic changes in ALS-derived motor neurons.
Mapping intracellular crosstalk in FTD. We use cortical neurons differentiated from patients with genetic forms of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) to define how protein aggregation rewires the proteome and leads to functional deficits.