Organisation / Company: CEU San Pablo University
Department: Faculty of Pharmacy Laboratory Metbrain
Is the Hosting related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
USP-CEU welcomes early stage postdoctoral researchers with an excellent track record to apply to the European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA-24) Postdoctoral Fellowships, Marie Sklodowska-Curie 4 Ukraine (MSCA4Ukraine 2024) Postdoctoral Fellowships or any other R2 research calls, such as: Juan de la Cierva (Spanish Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation) or Atracción Talento (Madrid Regional Government).
Selected candidates will be provided with special assistance for proposal writing and development. Our University has been a beneficiary of 8 MSCA PF since 2017, including one MSCA-PF with an evaluation of 100/100 in 2021.
PI Fernandez-Martos's career investigates pathological mechanisms in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other neurodegenerative conditions.
She has a broad experience in molecular endocrinology and extensive training in translational neuroscience with a focus on leptin therapies.
Her background also includes work on in vivo disease models.
PI Fernandez-Martos is currently A/Professor at the School of Pharmacy of USP-CEU and leads her own laboratory group consisting of two A/Professors, one experienced research assistant, and one PhD student under her primary supervision.
Together they have extensive expertise in histological and biochemical techniques relevant to this proposal.
Research topic description: There is no cure for ALS.
This devastating disorder is considered the third most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, with a significant socio-economic impact.
The rapid disease course and severity of unmet medical needs demand new effective therapies that improve the lives of people living with ALS.
New data suggest that being overweight or obese confers a survival advantage in ALS patients, and this metabolic alteration directly affects leptin - a fat cell-derived hormone that regulates body weight.
A recent epidemiological study has determined how leptin levels are inversely associated with ALS risk: increasing leptin concentrations were associated with longer survival of ALS patients, suggesting a possible link between leptin and the clinical features of ALS.
However, there is little mechanistic insight into how leptin confers a survival advantage in patients with ALS.
My group has provided the first experimental evidence suggesting that ALS may be associated with alterations in leptin signaling pathways that might result in a leptin resistant state, playing a critical role in the characteristic irreversible and progressive pathological changes associated with ALS.
Our hypothesis is that leptin triggers neuronal signaling pathways which protect against ALS pathology.
Exploiting highly relevant models of ALS pathology and chemical tools for drug discovery, the main aim of this project is to demonstrate the relevance of our hypothesis to human disease using primary upper motor neuron cultures and hiPSC-derived neurons, delivering unprecedented mechanistic insights into the role of leptin in ALS pathogenesis and the basis for future drug or biomarker development.
Candidate requirements: Background in Neuroscience, preferably in neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) such as ALS, FTD, and/or AD.Strong expertise in vitro in primary culture and culturing motor neurons, and in vivo disease models as well as human tissue.An expression of interest should be sent to Carmen Fernandez-Martos.
Your file should contain the following elements:
A short CV (Max.
2 pages)Two letters of reference.For MSCA-PF 24 call, at the deadline for the submission of proposals (11/09/2024), candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activities in Spain or more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline.
Those files received before 15th of June will be considered for MSCA-PF 2024 and MSCA4Ukraine 2024 call. Applications received after this date will be considered for other calls after discussion with the candidate. Keywords: Neurodegenerative disease (NDD); Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Metabolic alterations; Leptin; Biomarkers.
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