Contact information
Research groups
Collaborators
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Stephanie Cragg
Professor of Neuroscience
Colleges
Aishwarya Vedula
DPhil Student
Purines (ATP and adenosine) are important, activity-dependent neurotransmitters that are uniquely placed to translate bioenergetic abnormalities into alterations in neuronal activity and transmitter release. They have been shown to play crucial roles in modulating network activity in the striatum, and dysregulated adenosine signalling contributes to motor symptom progression in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, it is not known whether aberrant purinergic signalling contributes to early abnormalities in striatal activity and dopamine release in PD models. During my PhD project in the Wade-Martins lab, I aim to use a fluid-walled microfluidics platform to construct an iPSC-derived neuronal microcircuit consisting of striatal projection neurons, dopamine neurons and cortical neurons, in order to study molecular differences in purinergic signalling, as well as purine modulation of dopamine release, in health and in familial/sporadic PD. I obtained my undergraduate medical degree (MBBS) from Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, India in 2022, and then completed the MSc in Neuroscience (2022-2023) at the University of Oxford. My MSc rotation projects were in the labs of Prof Colin Akerman (Dept of Pharmacology) and Prof Stephanie Cragg (DPAG).