Hugo Fernandes

I am interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying selective neuronal loss in Parkinson’s disease and associated disorders. My goal is to identify novel disease targets that could lead to effective therapeutic interventions to improve patients' qaulity of life.

My research focuses on using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from Parkinson’s patients, to generate dopamine neurons to identify and explore robust mechanisms of degeneration.

I have been developing and implementing a range of high-throughput and deep phenotyping tools including genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens, single-cell lipidomics and single-cell transcriptomics. Using these complementary and novel approaches I aim at identifying critical targets for neurodegeneration to expand into future clinical therapeutics.

I am currently focused on perturbations in lipid metabolism, lysosomal function and ER stress, and interested in understanding how cellular ageing modulates these pathways in human neurons.

I am a strong advocate for interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts as the path for innovation and cutting-edge research. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss possible collaborations or simply to discuss exciting research ideas.