Liang Ma
Sara Reithofer
Alumni:
Verena Pesch
Anja Schaffrath
Jessica Schneide
Katja Jansen
Chiara Kroepel
We develop diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapeutics against protein aggregation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease and ALS.
We are investigating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease that damage the brain and lead to motor deficits and/or cognitive impairment and dementia. These diseases are characterized by misfolding and aggregation of specific neuronal proteins, such as α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease and amyloid-β and tau in Alzheimer's disease, resulting in neuronal damage and loss. The focus of our research is to better understand the cellular and systemic spread of toxic protein aggregates, to develop a diagnostic laboratory test for early detection of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and to develop vaccine and drug candidates for the protection and therapeutic treatment of patients with Parkinson's and other synucleinopathies.
Liang Ma
Sara Reithofer
Alumni:
Verena Pesch
Anja Schaffrath
Jessica Schneide
Katja Jansen
Chiara Kroepel
International collaborations
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Prof. Dr. Holger Wille)
Vaccine development for Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies
Calibr, Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, USA (Dr. Arnab Chatterjee)
Drug development for Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies
National collaborations
Universität Rostock (Prof. Dr. Gabriele Doblhammer)
Investigation of infectious diseases as risk factors in Parkinson’s diseases and dementia
University Hospital Cologne (Prof. Dr. Michael Barbe, Prof. Dr. Özgür Onur, PD Dr. Michael Sommerauer)
Establishment of the Köln-Jülich-Biobank and development of diagnostics for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
Lead Discovery Center GmbH, Dortmund (Dr. Bert Klebl, Dr. Jan Eickhoff)
Drug development for Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies
Priavoid GmbH, Düsseldorf (Dr. Antje Willuweit)
Development of D-peptides as therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease
Internal Collaborations
Dr. Oliver Bannach
Development of sFIDA as a diagnostic laboratory test for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Schröder
Cryo-EM based structure analysis of alpha-synuclein fibrils
Prof. Dr. Birgit Strodel
Supercomputer-aided drug development for the treatment of synucleinopathies
Prof. Dr. Dieter Willbold und Dr. Jeannine Mohrlüder
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-022-00330-x