Research focus
My research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying diseases of the brain such as obesity and neurodegeneration using both human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neuronal co-cultures and in vivo mouse models. Specifically, I’m working on the identification of obesity-associated genes enriched in human hypothalamic neurons using a hiPSC-derived POMC model system. My other major project aims to elucidate the time course of high fat high sugar diet-induced neuroinflammation to reveal the cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal stress and damage.
Background and experience
Before joining the IMS, my research has focused on stress as a mechanism for increasing nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species production which has been implicated in the aetiology of stress-related and other neuropathological conditions. I worked in the Neuroinflammation Laboratory at The University of Queensland (Australia) after my PhD to studied the underlying neuroinflammatory pathogenesis of dipeptide repeat proteins. By utilising several inflammatory-related transgenic mouse lines lacking one of the innate immune receptors of the complement cascade, I have also focused on characterising the involvement of these inflammatory components in mediating central stress responsiveness.
Awards
BSN-SNE Poster Communication Award (4th BSN-SNE joint meeting of Neuroendocrinology, 2021)
SFRRA Young Investigator Award (Society for Free Radical Research (Australasia), 2018)
ISPNE Young Investigator Award (International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2015)
