Becky Carlyle

My research focuses on integration of global measures of RNA (transcriptomics) and protein (mass-spectrometry proteomics) in the post-mortem human brain to understand the molecular changes that leave us susceptible to neurodegeneration and identify biomarkers of disease progression.  My current projects focus on:

1. Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease. In collaboration with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Yale-NIDA Neuroproteomics Center, I am using data-independent mass-spectrometry to analyse the cerebrospinal fluid of 400 attendees of a neurology clinic, to identify Alzheimer's Disease specific protein signatures from individuals with varied neurological conditions

2. Neuropeptides and resilience to Alzheimer's Disease. In work funded by the Bright Focus Foundation, I am using non-tryptic mass-spectrometry to identify neuropeptides that are highly abundant in individuals who are resilient to amyloid and tau pathology, combined with work in human iPSC-derived neuronal cultures to ascertain if these peptides are actively protective of neuronal function.

3. Spatial proteomics in human post-mortem tissue. I am developing biochemical methods to fractionate human post-mortem brain tissue and mass-spectrometry to identify proteins that may change localisation in disease states.  

Biography