Organelle shaping, trafficking and communication in neurons and neurodegenerative diseases

The shape, spatial organisation, and communication pathways of subcellular organelles are central to neuronal function and are profoundly disrupted in neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. This PhD project will combine advanced live-cell and super-resolution microscopy, multiomic profiling, and CRISPR-based gene editing in human iPSC-derived neurons to define how organelle form supports neuronal function, and how these relationships break down in neurodegeneration. The student will develop and apply quantitative imaging approaches to map organelle architecture and interactions, integrate these data with proteomic and lipidomic analyses, and functionally perturb candidate pathways to establish causal links between organelle organisation and neuronal dysfunction.