The Team

I graduated from the University of Pavia and IUSS (Pavia, Italy) with a Master’s degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology. After Uni, I relocated to the MRC Centre for Neurodegeneration Research (King’s College London, UK) where I obtained a PhD in Neuroscience. In the lab of Chris Miller, I studied axonal transport using cultures of rodent primary neurons as a model. While studying for my PhD, I felt that much was known about the regulation of neuronal transport in vitro (i.e. in cell culture). However, how neuronal trafficking is orchestrated in an in vivo system was largely unexplored. For my postdoctoral training, I then decided to move to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK) in the lab of Simon Bullock to study neuronal trafficking in the Drosophila nervous system. During my postdoc at the LMB, I developed a strong interest in neuronal ageing and I obtained an NC3Rs David Sainsbury Fellowship to pursue these studies. I was recruited to the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute (King’s College London, UK) as Van Geest Fellow in Dementia and Neurodegeneration to start my independent research group studying the regulation of intracellular trafficking in ageing Drosophila and in mammalian primary neurons. I am now a Group Leader and Lecturer (tenured) in Cellular Neuroscience at King’s. I am also a Principal Investigator at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA, Portugal).

mailto: alessio.vagnoni[at]kcl.ac.uk, alessio.vagnoni[at]uc.pt 

I graduated with an Integrated MSc (MSci) in Neuroscience from King’s College London in 2016; I conducted my BSc project in Dr Hirth’s lab (IOPPN), investigating the RAN translated Dipeptide Repeat Proteins from ALS Drosophila models containing the G4C2 hexonucleotide repeat expansion. I then joined Dr Srivastava’s lab (Maurice Wohl Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Institute) for my masters year, where I differentiated and characterized populations of IPSC derived cortical neurons. In 2017 I joined the lab of Prof Plun-Favreau at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, where I optimised and ran high content assays on SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines to identify Parkinson’s Disease risk genes as modulators of PINK1-Parkin mediated mitophagy (as part of the Parkinson’s Genes Consortium – Universities of Cambridge, Reading and UCL – and in collaboration with the ARUK Drug Discovery Institute UCL).  I started the PhD in Alessio’s lab in September 2019 and, in collaboration with the labs of Prof Ferraiuolo at SITraN (University of Sheffield) and Prof Jerome Mertens (UCSD), I have been learning fibroblast reprogramming techniques. I am now a postdoc in Alessio’s lab.

mailto: emily.1.annuario[at]kcl.ac.uk

In 2017, I graduated from the University of Oxford (Wadham College) with an undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology. I then studied MSc Neuroscience at King’s College London, to broaden my understanding of the cellular and molecular levels of brain function. My MSc research project was in the lab of Dr. Sandrine Thuret, where I used induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate the effects of cellular stress on neurogenesis. Following my Masters, I worked as a Research Assistant on an academic-industrial collaboration at the Oxford Drug Discovery Institute. My role involved developing in vitro models of Parkinson’s disease for phenotypic analysis and compound screening. In October 2020, I started as an MRes-PhD student on the MRC DTP program. After completing my third rotation in Alessio’s lab, I started my PhD project investigating the link between neuronal trafficking and the maintenance of neurons during ageing.

mailto: ethlyn.lloyd-morris[at]kcl.ac.uk

I completed my DPhil training at Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. I was supervised by Prof Petros Ligoxygakis and Dr Paul Elliot. We published a manuscript about how inactivating an autosomal deubiquitylase ‒ TRABID ‒ causes sex-specific neurodegeneration in Drosophila. The sex dimorphism phenotypes are underlined by sex disparity in antimicrobial peptides’ (AMPs) expressions in brains, ubiquitinome modification, proteome changes and atypical ubiquitin chains’ accumulations in heads. Further suppressing female development pathway in astrocyte and immunocompetent tissues (fat body and intestine) in TRABID-inactivated flies can partially change female-specific neurodegenerative phenotypes and AMPs expressions into male-specific patterns. I joined Dr Vagnoni’s lab in 2023 to investigate mitochondria trafficking in neurodegenerative diseases.

mailto: jingnu.xia[at]kcl.ac.uk

In 2023, I completed my MSc (by Research) in Biomedical Science at Lancaster University. My project was in the lab of Dr. Susan Broughton, where I studied the effects of reducing IIS in serotonergic neurons in Drosophila on lifespan, locomotor senescence, stress resistance, and the expression of genes (dilp2 and dilp5) and proteins (DILP5 and serotonin) in the brains of Drosophila. In October 2023, I started my PhD investigating mitochondrial organelle contact sites in ageing and neurodegenerative diseases in Alessio’s lab.

mailto: tia.griffiths[at]kcl.ac.uk

I completed my Bachelor’s in biochemistry at the University of Granada, Spain. Then, my passion for neuroscience drove me to pursue an MSc in Neuroscience from Sussex University (UK). My project was in the lab of Dr. Ruth Murrel-Lagnado investigating the role of Sigma-1 receptor and its mutation in ALS. This protein appears in the contact region between ER and mitochondria. I used mouse tissue, SH-SY5Y, and HEK-293 cells. After that, I moved to Bordeaux (France) to complete my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Soukup where I deciphered the relationship between autophagy and exosomes at the synapse in the context of Parkinson’s disease using Drosophila as a model organism. In particular, I used the larval neuromuscular junction to study the synapse. I joined Dr. Alessio Vagnoni’s lab in 2024 to investigate how different expressions of genes affect ageing and research further intercellular communication in adult flies.

mailto: irene.sanchez-mirasierra[at]uc.pt

I completed my Integrated MSc. in Systems Biology from the University of Hyderabad, India, graduating with a gold medal for securing the top rank in my course. My Master’s project focused on computationally predicting promoter-targeting microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in cell cycle regulation, which sparked my interest in the novel nuclear roles of miRNAs and Argonaute proteins. Building on this idea, I successfully secured a DAAD German doctoral scholarship to join Prof. Dr. Halyna Shcherbata’s lab at Hannover Medical School, where I studied the nuclear role of Drosophila Argonaute 1 (AGO1) protein. Using Drosophila oogenesis as a stress-sensitive in vivo model, I observed stress-dependent AGO1 localization in various cytoplasmic and nuclear ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules, including colocalization with a nucleolar marker, and its involvement in regulating cell growth and binding to small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs). Thus, my PhD work suggested AGO1 as part of a snoRNP complex with a novel nuclear role in the regulation of cell growth. In Alessio’s lab, I am excited to explore aging research, particularly delving into the biophysical changes in the cytoplasm during aging and their effects on neuronal trafficking.

mailto: rucha.hebalkar[at]uc.pt

Following my graduation from Charles University as a Biochemist, I was fortunate to embark on an exciting journey that allowed me to explore Mitochondrial Biology from a multitude of diverse perspectives. At the Institute of Physiology in Prague, I learned how insulin-secreting b-cells fend off oxidative stress or how different modes of bioenergetic metabolism allow cancer cells to distinctly adapt to hypoxia. Subsequently, I joined the laboratory of Randy Strich at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in New Jersey where I unraveled the molecular links between mitochondrial dynamics and apoptotic cell death and later capitalized on the gained knowledge by utilizing a state-of-the-art stapled peptide approach to specifically eradicate cancer cells. I then mastered Drosophila Mitochondrial Genetics under the guidance of Hansong Ma at The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. My studies there were mainly focused on understanding how mitochondria repair their genome, how two orthogonal mitochondrial mutations communicate via the mitochondrial lipid cardiolipin to compromise Complex IV function, and how mitochondria assemble into complex superstructures termed the “Mitoballs” to sustain spermatogenesis. Following these seminal discoveries, I delved into clinical research by joining the laboratory of Antonella Spinazzola and Ian Holt at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology located at the Royal Free Hospital in London. To this end, I repurposed a highly efficient Southern blot DNA detection protocol to reveal that pharmacological targeting of metabolism in human cells harboring mitochondrial DNA lesions may be a general strategy for patients suffering from mitochondrial diseases. Pursuing my passion further, my goal in Alessio’s lab will be to interrogate the role of mitochondrial trafficking in longevity and healthspan.

mailto: jezek[at]uc.pt

I hold a degree in Biology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), where I engaged in a placement at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, studying the interplay between TGF-β and insulin signalling pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans. My academic journey continued with an ERASMUS+ placement at the University of Birmingham (UK), focusing on temporal changes in the genetic diversity of Daphnia magna, and culminated in a final year project at Hospital Universitario La Paz, investigating genetic variants in modifier genes affecting Dravet Syndrome clinical presentations. I pursued a Master’s in Biomedical Research at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain), specializing in Neurosciences and Cognition, where my project evaluated new pharmacological compounds for Alzheimer’s disease using mice and cell cultures. I then received a doctoral scholarship from the University of Leicester (UK) to work with Prof. Flaviano Giorgini and Prof. Edward Louis studying genetic modifiers for Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases through quantitative trait loci analysis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, validated with Drosophila melanogaster. Following my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad de Navarra, contributing to projects assessing the impact of resistance training on adipose tissue transcriptomics in obese women and exploring PRDM1 as a therapeutic target for obesity and diabetes using mice and cell cultures. Currently, I am finalizing my Master’s in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain) and I am working as a senior lab technician in Dr. Alessio Vagnoni, focusing on aging research using Drosophila melanogaster.

mailto: monica.nunez[at]uc.pt

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi

finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios

temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati!

Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,

quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare

Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi

spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida

aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

mailto: new.person[at]kcl.ac.uk, new.person[at]uc.pt