Dr. White finished his Ph.D. in developmental neuroscience at Cardiff University, studying the regulation of neuronal survival and the growth of neural processes in the developing nervous system, focusing on the functions and mechanisms of action of TNF superfamily members. He has been Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow & Healey Scholar of ALS Therapeutics since 2021. His current work utilises CRISPR/CAS9-generated knock-in models of TDP-43 to understand the pathological mechanisms underlying ALS/FTD, and to identify therapeutic targets.

During his scientific training, Dr. Prajapati acquired interdisciplinary research experiences. After obtaining his Ph.D. in the field of protein folding and thermodynamics, he developed an interest in understanding transcriptional regulation of cell fate decisions, and he worked with Dr. David Ish-horowicz (Cancer Research UK), Dr. Nicole Fracis (Harvard University) and Andrea Streit (King's College London). Presently, he is dissecting the molecular mechanisms of TDP-43 autoregulation in ALS using proteogenomics. 

Dr. Underhill completed her undergraduate degree in physiological science at Newcastle University before moving to The University of Edinburgh for her master's. In 2018 she started her Ph.D. with Prof. Walter Marcotti at the University of Sheffield, using electrophysiology to look at the role of myosin 7a in mechanotransduction. In the Sreedharan lab, Dr. Underhill is using CRISPR gene editing to generate stem cell-derived motor neurons with SARM1 mutation that have been linked to ALS.

Dr. Solomon obtained his MSc in Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and his PhD in the labs of Dr. Jacqueline Mitchell and Dr. Marc David-Ruepp at KCL, where he investigated the impact of the Alzheimer's disease protective variation PLCG2-P522R in microglia. His current work in the Sreedharan lab focuses on the impact of TDP-43 disease causing mutations have on microglial mediated lysosomal biogenesis and synaptic pruning.

Dr Akcay received his PhD from ETH Zurich, studying quantitative genetics of starvation resistance in fruit flies.  After two postdoc terms, working on cancer genetics, cancer cell signaling, and monogenic diabetes, he switched to neuroscience by joining Dr.Sreedharan’s lab in July 2023. Here, he is going to investigate the effects of ALS-associated variants in TARDBP and CFAP410 genes on the cellular phenotypes of iPSC-derived neurons and microglia

Dr. Mech completed her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology at University of Gdansk and her master's degree in Genetics of Human Disease at UCL. During her PhD in Prof. Caroline Brennan lab at QMUL she used zebrafish to identify novel genetic variants associated with nicotine addiction. Her work in Sreedharan lab involves generating CRISPR/Cas9 iPSC lines with mutations associated with ALS.

Sara graduated with an integrated MSc (MSci) in Neuroscience from King’s College London in 2020; where she conducted her BSc project in Professor Carmine Pariante’s lab and then joined Professor Chris Miller’s lab investigating ER-mitochondria contacts in Sigma-1-associated ALS. Having worked in the Sreedharan lab for a year developing a screening assay to identify modifiers of TDP-43 autoregulation, she has now started her PhD where she will be investigating the role of heterogeneous ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration using iPSC-derived models and CRISPR/gene-editing techniques.

Leon studied Biology at the University of York before completing an MSc in Translational Neuroscience at Imperial College London and started his Ph.D. at the Sreedharan lab in October 2022. During his Ph.D., he will be utilising CRISPR to manipulate a heterozygous M337V TARDBP mutation in a patient iPSC line. Additionally, in collaboration with Omer Bayrakter (Wellcome Sanger Institute), he will be using spatial transcriptomics to explore cell-type specific molecular changes across different brain regions in the TARDBP Q331K knock-in mouse model.

In the Sreedharan lab, Vaishnavi is interested in looking at the effect of variants in the non-coding region of the TARDBP gene on ALS/FTD pathology. Her project uses an amazing CRISPR-based technique called GenIE, to screen for over 100 TDP variants for their influence on TDP-43 gene expression, using iPSC derived cell models. Vaishnavi has previously worked on a screening project in flies during her master's project at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore.

Aleks obtained her BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience from University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland before completing an MRes at the University of Edinburgh. In 2019 she moved to KCL where she worked on a gene therapy project in Prof Chris Shaw’s group and then joined the BRAIN Pre-clinical Neuroimaging Centre. She started her PhD in the Sreedharan lab in June 2023, investigating the role of N-terminal splice variants of tau and inhibitory interneuronal network dysfunction in ALS-FTD using TDP-43 knock-in mouse models and ultrastructural histological/ imaging techniques.

Jedidiah completed her MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London investigating Characterisation of a Mouse Model of Sleep Disorders under Alessio Delogu, focusing on the Sox14 gene. Her project in the Sreedharan lab is to investigate the role of TDP-43 in sleep and microglial activation, using in-vivo models and iPSC derived microglia.

Dulcie graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2020 with a BSc in Biological Sciences. Since then, she has been developing her molecular biology skills by working on genetically engineering tropical crops to improve yield and sustainability. She joins the Sreedharan lab as a research assistant and will be involved in generating novel iPSC lines through CRISPR.