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We go behind the scenes in Dr Aitana Sogorb Esteve lab to hear about their research into frontotemporal dementia, their work with the UK DRI Biomarker Factory, and moving to Grays Inn Road.
Dr Aitana Sogorb Esteve is an Emerging Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, and Race Against Dementia Fellow. We go behind the scenes in her lab to hear about their research into frontotemporal dementia, their work with the UK DRI Biomarker Factory, and moving to Grays Inn Road.
The Sogorb-Esteve lab: (L-R) Katie Thompson, Aitana Sogorb-Esteve and Imogen Swift
Our research focuses on developing ways to measure fluid biomarkers for frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We do this mainly by developing immunoassays to measure proteins that are changed in samples such as blood or spinal fluid from participants with FTD.
We are a very small team part of a wider group led by Professor Jonathan Rohrer and this allows us to have a direct interaction with the clinical team, but also with the imaging and cognitive teams in which they develop other type of biomarkers for FTD.
We are also part of a very special study, the GENetic FTD Initiative (GENFI), a multicentre study formed by more than 30 centres across Europe and Canada, recruiting presymptomatic and symptomatic mutation carriers of the main mutations causing FTD.
“Grays Inn Road will be a great scenario for our multidisciplinary research in which all aspects of a neurodegenerative disease like FTD could be tackled uniting forces from different backgrounds. This will help with the ongoing collaborations we have with other groups at UCL and will help with new ones to come.
Our lab sits within the UK DRI Biomarker Factory, team with which we have a very good collaboration allowing us to work very closely with a state-of-the-art facility in the UK.
In our specific scope, we try to cover different aspects of the FTD pathology. Imogen Swift is a third year PhD student developing assays to measure a protein called progranulin, very related to one type of genetic FTD, across different sample types. Katie Thompson is a research assistant who joined the team recently and will be helping in projects related to markers to detect inflammatory response and synaptic dysfunction.
I am specifically focused on investigating what goes wrong in synapses during FTD by studying the proteins that are found within them. As well as measuring these proteins in cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain, using a method called mass spectrometry, I am developing a new protocol to measure these proteins in the blood, which is more easily acquired. This involves extracting particles called extracellular vesicles that enter the blood from the brain and using mass spectrometry to measure the level of synaptic proteins inside them.
We collaborate with groups at UCL, nationally, and worldwide to complement our techniques and to accelerate our goal of finding innovative cures for this devastating disorder.
Our long-term scope is to find accurate biomarkers for the different types of FTD pathologies and genetic mutations and develop affordable and accessible methodologies to implement the use of such markers in the clinical practice.
We are very much looking forward to the new centre at Grays Inn Road. It will be a great scenario for our multidisciplinary research in which all aspects of a neurodegenerative disease like FTD could be tackled uniting forces from different backgrounds. This will help with the ongoing collaborations we have with other groups at UCL and will help with new ones to come.