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Nicole Li
DPhil Student
Targeting the Renin-Angiotensin System in Parkinson's Disease
I completed my undergraduate degree in Medical Biosciences and MRes in Brain Sciences at Imperial and UCL respectively. After gaining an initial interest in neurodegeneration, I joined the Wade-Martins Group as a research assistant in 2024. My research looked at testing and validating therapeutic targets of the endolysosomal system in Parkinson’s disease, working with EndLyz Therapeutics.
My DPhil research focuses on targeting the renin-angiotensin pathway in stem-cell derived neurones to mitigate dopaminergic vulnerability in Parkinson’s disease. Funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK, my research will investigate if genetic and pharmacological modulation of AGTR1, a marker of dopaminergic neurones particularly prone to degeneration, can rescue disease-associated phenotypes identified in PD. This work aims to elucidate the mechanisms through which angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), a class of clinically approved drugs, exert neuroprotective effects previously observed in pre-clinical studies. By enhancing the translational understanding of ARBs in a human cellular context, my goal is to support their successful repurposing as potential disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease.