The Department would like to congratulate Dr Charmaine Lang who has been conferred the title of Departmental Research Lecturer in recognition of her contribution to her research group and the teaching and research mission of DPAG.
Dr Lang is a member of the Wade-Martins Group in the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC) based in the Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery. She leads the optimisation of protocols for the differentiation of Parkinson’s-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of dopamine neurons and midbrain astrocytes to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s. She and her team uses these complex iPSC and dopamine neuron and astrocyte models to identify new potential therapeutic targets of interest. The main goal is to identify novel compounds that act on these targets as early biological treatments for Parkinson's.
Dr Lang supervises a team of seven people, comprising of three postdoctoral researchers, two DPhil students, a research assistant and an undergraduate FHS project student. She is heavily involved in undergraduate teaching at Oxford, as a lecturer on the FHS and FHS Part II Course in Systems Neuroscience theme 3, and as a tutor for both second- and third-year Medicine (FHS) students. She is also a Senior Doctoral Training Advisor (SDTA) for many of DPAG’s graduate students and sits as an SDTA representative on the DPAG Graduate Studies Committee. She also acts as College advisor as part of her role as Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College.
Dr Lang is a member of the DPAG Training and Career Development Working Group, which aims to monitor the training and development requirements of all DPAG staff and students and identify suitable courses and other resources to meet those needs. The Working Group is responsible for a successful termly series of themed ‘Lunch and Learn’ workshops within the department.
On receipt of her appointment, Dr Lang said: “I am very grateful my research successes and contributions to teaching and supervision within the department have been recognised through this new role. I see this as an exciting new step in my academic scientific independence and to use this opportunity to build on my team, research, teaching and committee endeavours. I thank everyone who has helped me along the way for their support and for the wonderful collaborative environment I’ve experienced within the department.”