HiLife Proof-of-Concept grant for PREP lab!

Year 2018 started very nicely when Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences (HiLife) gave their Proof-of-Concept (PoC) grant for PREP Lab. The idea of this grant is to fill in gaps that are missing to get a proof-of-concept for your invention, and in PREP lab, it will certainly assist us to fill missing gaps to have a preclinical PoC for the use of PREP inhibitors as a therapy in Parkinson’s disease.

More info about HiLife PoC grant:
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/helsinki-institute-of-life-science/hipoc-proof-of-concept-grants

 

PREP lab in Society for Neuroscience meeting 2017, Washington DC

PREP lab members Timo, Reinis and Ulrika will participate to SfN 2017 meeting in Washington DC 11.-15.11. Come and check our most recent progress in PREP studies in posters – Reinis will present on Saturday 11.11. afternoon, poster number V9 and Ulrika presents on Wednesday 15.11. afternoon, poster number O8. Looking forward to interesting talks, posters and meeting fellow neuroscientists!

Again new members in the lab – PhD Maria Jäntti will start as a post doc on September 2017

PREP lab is again expanding on September when PhD Maria Jäntti will start as a post doc on our team. Maria got her PhD from Veterinary Biosciences of University of Helsinki, and has been lately working in Prof. Raimo Tuominen’s group in Faculty of Pharmacy. In PREP lab, Maria will be responsible for testing of novel PREP inhibitors developed in Academy of Finland Spearhead project.

New publication in Experimental Brain Research!

The first manuscript of 2017 was accepted to Experimental Brain Research. In the paper entitled “Nigral injection of a proteasomal inhibitor, lactacystin, induces widespread glial cell activation and shows various phenotypes of Parkinson’s disease in young and adult mouse” we showed that injection of proteasomal inhibition could be a good mouse model for Parkinson’s diseases. It seems that unlike several other toxin based Parkinson’s diseases models, proteasomal inhibition induces not only dopaminergic neurodegeneration but also accumulation of alpha-synuclein, enhanced GABAergic neurotransmission and neuroinflammation. Link to full text (maybe needs to be purchased):

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-017-4962-z

PREP lab in AD/PD2017 in Vienna!

Timo from PREP lab is attending AD/PD2017 meeting in Vienna, Austria. PREP lab will be presenting 2 posters, poster #238 on Friday 31.3. about the impact of PREP on dopamine transporter functions and poster #116 on Saturday 1.4. about the role of PREP on alpha-synuclein aggregation in vivo. Welcome to visit and have a discussion on posters!