LAB MEMBERS
Professor Frances Edwards
Education:
Australian National University
Max Plank Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
Gottingen, Germany
PhD, Neurophysiology | 1990
University of Sydney
MSc, Pharmacology | 1984
University of Sydney
BSc Hons, Pharmacology | 1980
Bio:
Frances Edwards graduated in Pharmacology at the University of Sydney, Australia and received her PhD whilst working at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany under the Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Bert Sakmann. After staying on as a postdoctoral fellow in Sakmann's lab, in 1990 she joined David Colquhoun’s group in Pharmacology at UCL as a Wellcome European Fellow. After returning to Australia in 1992 Frances held a Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney from 1993 until 1996. In 1996 she joined the Department of Physiology at UCL. Until 2010 the focus of the Edwards lab was mechanisms of fast synaptic transmission and the role of dendritic spines in plasticity using electrophysiology and confocal imaging. In 2010 the research direction largely shifted to research on Alzheimer's disease, studying several transgenic mouse models of human mutations in the amyloid pathway or microtubule-associated protein tau. Recently improved knock-in models have been developed and these are now the focus of the lab.
Teaching:
In 1997, Frances Edwards and Maria Fitzgerald set up the MSc Neuroscience at UCL which Edwards then ran with a series of other colleagues until 2013. This is a highly academic research-based degree exposing about 40 students per year to the most recent neuroscience research from across the whole of UCL in the form of research seminars, journal clubs and an extensive research project. Now relieved of this major administrative and teaching load, Frances Edwards continues to contribute to the undergraduate, Masters and PhD courses in Neuroscience, particularly concentrating on the the practical lab experience and library research of undergraduate and graduate students.
Interests Beyond UCL:
Frances Edwards has always been actively interested in issues of the natural environment and now works from home much of the time dividing her time between the Essex coast on the River Crouch and the west coast of Ireland where she and her husband grow trees and are proud to be protecting an old forest on their land on the River Roughty in co. Kerry. They also enjoy sailing on the Irish coast. Other interests include making pottery and in recent years wood turning.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Damian Cummings
I use single cell and field electrophysiology complemented with fluorescent immunohistochemistry, confocal imaging and behavioural approaches to understand the interactions of neurones and microglia to the development of early Alzheimer's disease pathologies. I am also involved with teaching in both the lab and classroom environments.
Dr. Takshashila Tripathi
I am molecular biologist postdoc working on a Cure-Alzheimer's funded research project studying the genome-wide transcriptomic analysis in the latest APPKI mice model with and without heterozygous human Tau (KI) from 2 to 24 months. We correlate changes in gene expression and development of pathology and also investigate the differences caused by the presence of human Tau investigating development of plaques and the interaction with human Tau, to assess Aβ-induced Tau pathology.
One of my roles is supervising students in the lab.
PhD Students
Katie Stringer
I look into the biochemistry of how early amyloid plaques aggregate and deposit in our APP knock-in mice, using a new chemical imaging paradigm called 'iSILK' - a combination of stable isotope labelling kinetics & imaging mass spectrometry. I also look at how microglia behave around plaques using hyperspectral confocal microscopy. I work in collaboration with Dr Jörg Hanrieder's Neurochemistry group at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Jack Wood
Throughout my masters and research assistant roles at the Edwards Lab, I focused on using techniques of molecular biology to characterise the microglial response to rising amyloid pathology in APP knock-in mice. Now as a 1st year PhD student, I use techniques of neurochemistry and molecular biology to assess the interaction of microglia and Alzheimer’s risk genes with varying plaque composition and age. I work in collaboration with Dr Jörg Hanrieder's Neurochemistry group at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Kari Vitanova
My project aims to understand the early mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease and specifically, the role of microglia in mediating the early response of the brain to the pathological amyloid plaques and their effects on axonal transmission.
Abdulaziz Aljawder
1st year PhD student. Research: Studying the role of astrocytes in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. A great deal of work has concentrated on the role of microglia in relation to plaque deposition and development and synaptic transmission, but little is understood about how these changes affect astrocytes. We hypothesis that astrocytes may play an important role in compensating for microglial dysfunction as plaques develop. The role of astrocytes will be studied in the most advanced mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, combining rising amyloid beta with other known human risk factors for the disease: age, microglial mutations and obesity, using gene expression analysis, immunohistochemistry, molecular techniques and electrophysiology.
Research Assistants
Sneha Desai
I’m a recent BSc Biomedical Sciences graduate from UCL and am working as a research assistant in the lab. I’m currently involved in a project which aims to evaluate how Aβ-induced changes in gene expression and pathological development will be exacerbated when additional risk factors, either genetic (Trem2) or environmental (obesity), are added to APP knock-in mice. The combination of additional risk factors with rising Aβ in very aged mice may provide a better model of Alzheimer’s Disease, therefore highlighting altered pathways and potential therapeutic targets.
Lily Gould
I am a Neuroscience MSc student at UCL currently working as a technician in the lab. My role primarily involves organising the mice used in the research and providing support to current lab members. I will be starting my research project in the Edwards' lab next year.
Masters Students
Aya Balbaa
I recently joined the Edwards lab as a Neuroscience MSc student. My research project uses my previous experience in bioinformatics to analyse novel spatial transcriptomics data in knock-in mice models of Alzheimer's disease. Results from this analysis will guide future wet-lab validation experiments.
Darcey Kirwin
I have recently joined the lab as a Neuroscience MSc student. This year I will focus on using immunohistochemical techniques to validate changes in mitochondrial gene expression that have been observed in hTau x APP knock-in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As my project progresses, I hope to also investigate the functional outcomes of these genetic changes in relation to how they contribute to AD pathology.
Eugenia Wong
I am an undergraduate MSci pharmacology student at UCL. My project focuses on the spatial genomics of microglia and astrocytes in relation to their proximity to plaques in APP knock-in mice and how the Trem2R47H mutation may affect their gene expression.
Undergraduate Students
Vidmante Jurgaityte
I am an undergraduate UCL student who has just finished a second year of BSc Pharmacology. Before coming to F. Edwards lab, I have been an intern at wet labs that purify new esterases, test the effect of drugs on cancer cells and rodent eyes. In this lab, I will use voltage clamp recordings to investigate how amyloid β plaques affect synaptic transmission in hippocampi of Alzheimer’s disease-related mice.
Collaborators
Dr. Jörg Hanrieder - Associate Professor in the Dept. Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University
Prof. John Hardy - Chair of the Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UCL
Dr. John G Hardy - Senior Lecturer in Materials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Materials Science Institute, Lancaster University
Prof. Tammaryn Lashley - Professor of Neuroscience, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UCL
Dr. Dervis Salih - Senior Research Associate, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UCL
Dr Sevinc Bayram - Bioinformatician, Hitatchi Rail Europe Ltd
Professor Lion Shahab - Institute of Epidemiology and Health, UCL
Alumni
Dr Dervis Salih, Senior Research Associate
Diana Pamela Benitez, PhD student
Jonathan Brenton, PhD student
Dr Wenfei Liu, PhD student
Dr Tiffany Benway, PhD student
Dr Zelah Joel, PhD student
Dr Joshua Paulin, PhD student
Dr Peter Haslehurst, PhD student
Dr Caroline Mestrallet, PhD student
Rui Wang, RA
Shenyi Jiang, RA
Mila Redzic, MSci student
Megan Watts, MSc student
Charlotte Carver, MSc student
Tom Hagley, MSci student
Oriane Onimus, Placement Student
Peipeng Lin, MSci student
Dimitra Sokolova, MSc student
Giorgos Sideris, Erasmus student
Dhaval Joshi, MSci student
Ms Rivka Steinberg, Research assistant
Dr Angelo Tedoldi, Research assistant
Aishwarya Pathak, MSc student
Eda Karakaya, Placement Student
Martha Roberts, MSc student
Natalie Wong, MSci student
Philippa Rosewell, MSc student
Vicky Smith, MSci student
Oriane Tasou, MSc student
Chloe Hall, MSc student
Carlijn Peerboom, MSc student
Pablo Izquierdo Garrudo, MSc student
Mario Mazzantini, MPhil
Dr Isabel Dean, PhD student
Dr Stephanie Parsley, PhD student
Dr Gareth Price, PhD student
Dr Sue Robertson, Postdoc
Dr Hemai Parthasarathy, Postdoc
Dr Roberta Donato, Postdoc
Dr Anna De Simoni, Postdoc
Dr Dietlind Koch, Postdoc
Dr Marina Yasvoina, Postdoc
Dr Lily Yu, Research assistant
Aygun Badalova, Rotation PhD Student
Ridwaan Joghee, MSc student
Nazar Stasyuk, Msc student