Prof. Amrit Mudher BSc DPhil SFHEA Lab PI and Professor of Neuroscience (1996) 1st Class Hons BSc King’s College London (1998) DPhil Merton College, University of Oxford a.mudher@soton.ac.uk I have studied Tau biology and pathology in a number of cellular and animal models since my DPhil, first in the laboratory of Prof. Hugh Perry in Oxford, and then in the laboratory of Sir Simon Lovestone at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. In 2001 I began my independent research career as an Alzheimer Society fellow and then as a lecturer at the University of Southampton in 2004. As my team grew, my interest in tauopathies deepened, and my experimental portfolio diversified to include Drosophila models and more recently human tissue-based models (post-mortem, resected, and iPSC cells - in collaboration with other scientists in Southampton). The methodologies employed to interrogate and manipulate the pathogenic tau species as they evolved in these models became more sophisticated through exciting interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists both within and beyond Southampton, as described on these pages. Academic Responsibilities: Admissions Tutor (Biological Sciences UG) Panel Membership: NC3Rs grant board, Alzheimer’s Society grant panel, PSPA grant panel.

Dr. Anna Crisford BSc PhD Post Doctoral Research Fellow (2007) BSc Biochemistry and Pharmacology, University of Southampton (2012) PhD Neuropharmacology University of Southampton A.Crisford@soton.ac.uk I am a Research fellow in Amrit Mudher’s lab working on the project investigating connections between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Type II Diabetes. I have been working on the joint neuroscience related projects between Biological Sciences and Chemistry since 2016. My main arear of research concentrated on developing methodology of imaging techniques that use chemical signatures of TAU protein to enable early diagnosis in AD, such as, Raman, CARS and Two photon fluorescence. These techniques are capable to detect a shift of TAU from a disordered structure to a partial beta sheet conformation found in disease.

Eva Ruiz-Ortega PhD student (2010) B.Tech. Biotechnology (2012) M.Sc. (Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine) pp1g16@soton.ac.uk I am currently a PhD student, working with Dr. Sandrine Willaime-Morawek (Southampton General Hospital/Faculty of Medicine) and Dr. Amrit Mudher (B85 - Highfield Campus) on the project titled “A 3D induced pluripotent stem cell – derived human neural culture model to study certain molecular and biochemical aspects of Alzheimer Disease”. My primary area of research has been in studying stem cells, especially as an in vitro tool for disease modelling, and in developing efficient differentiation pathways for stem cell cultures in 3D.

Dr Lovesha Sivanantharajah PhD Alzheimer’s Society Research Fellow (2005) BSc Honors Genetic (2013) PhD Molecular Biology l.sivanantharajah@bangor.ac.uk Dr Lovesha Sivanantharajah is an Alzheimer’s Society Junior Fellow based at Bangor University (Wales). She completed her PhD in Molecular Biology and her BSc in Honours Genetics at Western University (Canada). Her current research focuses on dissecting why neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease target specific brain regions. Using a fly model, she is working to identify nerve cell-types that are differentially affected by the disease-causing protein, tau.

Dr. George Devitt BSc PhD Post Doctoral Research Fellow (Neurodegeneration Business and Commercialisation Fellow) (2015) MRes University of Bath (2020) PhD University of Southampton G.Devitt@soton.ac.uk My work forms part of an interdisciplinary research project between Biological Sciences (Amrit Mudher) and Chemistry (Sumeet Mahajan) with collaborative ties to Medicine. We are interested in the biophysical properties of tau conformers and how these can be related to tauopathy disease progression. We are using biophysical techniques to develop novel methods to improve the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases that cause dementia. We want our research to deliver real-world healthcare benefits and have a positive impact on society. Therefore, I am currently undertaking a Business and Commercialisation Fellowship with the Technology Transfer Team in Research Innovation Services (RIS). This secondment will allow me to develop the expertise required to secure intellectual property (IP), to communicate with industry and to commercialise my research so that it can be translated into a clinical service. We are also working to implement a university policy on ‘responsible innovation’ to ensure that the products and services being developed by the university are transparent, ethical and sustainable.

Dr. Shreyasi Chatterjee Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University Visiting Fellow at University of Southampton (2002) PhD from Bose Institute, India I joined Mudher Lab as a Marie-Curie fellow in 2017. Presently, I am a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. My research interest is to investigate the underlying connection Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.

Bradley Richardson MNeuroSci PhD student (2020) MNeuroScience (University of Southampton) (2020-Present) PhD “How do Neurons age?” br3g16@soton.ac.uk I hold a keen interest in the development of the brain in health and disease. In particular, Neurodegeneration and the diseases that encompass this. My masters research surrounded the spread of tau within a Drosophila model system. This has led into my PhD where I am using Drosophila to investigate how neurons change with healthy aging.

Ben Batchelor BSc PhD student (2014 -2018) 1st Class degree Biochemistry (2016-17) Year in industry with Puridify Ltd. (2018-Current) PhD bb3g14@soton.ac.uk My current interest is in developing a Drosophila based model in which to study aspects of pathological Tau transfer and seeding. The fruit fly brain offers some unique advantages for studying pathological Tau propagation and the combination of IHC and confocal microscopy creates some fascinating images to study.

Preeti Prasannan B.Tech, MSc PhD student (2013) Biology Universidad de Sonora, Mexico (2015) Master in Nanotechnology E.D.Ruiz-Ortega@soton.ac.uk My research interest is in the mechanisms underlying protein toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases using a variety of biochemical and biophysical techniques.