Ricardo Marquez Gomez

Background

I studied Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology in Mexico and my research focused on finding novel GPCRs heterodimers in the striatum and their molecular fingerprint. This was done by chassical biochemical approaches (co-IP) from cells and brain tissue, and Functional Complementation Assays.

In 2019, I obtained funding from the Royal Society to join the Department of Pharmacology at University of Oxford as a Newton International Fellow to study how histamine regulates cortico-striatal development, using optogenetics and electrophysiology.

DPAG

I joined DPAG in 2021 as part of Wade-Martins group on a collaborative project with Astra Zeneca that aimed to test drug candidates to alleviate Parkinson's disease (PD). In this project I used high-throughput screening, CRISPRi technology and calcium release experiments in iPSCs Dopaminergic neurons. This project resulted in moving drug candidates into pre-clinical trials.

My current project aims to develop neuronal microcircuits on-a-dish using human hiPSCs. We have a strong interdisciplinary collaboration with Researchers at Chemistry and Engineering to use 3D bioprinting and fluid walls microfluidics to form functional connections between hiPSCs neurons, that can recapitulate the circuitry affected in Parkinson's disease (cortical-striatal-dopamine circuit).

Using this microcircuits, we are looking at expression of G protein coupled receptors and how they modulate neuronal transmission in a human contexts. GPCRs represent around 50% of drug targets in the current market and are the responsible for the actions of neurmoduators like dopamine and serotonin.