Fellows:
Education and work experience |
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03/2015 – present |
Experienced researcher at QPS Austria, Austria |
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04/2009 – 02/2015 |
Researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tuebingen, Germany |
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10/2004 – 03/2009 |
Research assistant and Diploma student at the University of Marburg, Germany. |
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10/2001 – 09/2004 |
Diploma student at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. |
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Work to be performed within SwitchHD: |
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1. |
Metabolic dysfunction in BACHD rats |
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2. |
Cognitive dysfunction in BACHD rats |
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3. |
Inactivation of mutant huntingtin in different primary BACHD rat neurons |
Education and Work Experience |
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02/2016 - present |
Experienced researcher at QPS Austria, Austria Research and Development, Animal Facility Unit |
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03/2012 - 01/2016 |
Researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tuebingen, Germany |
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10/2011 - 02/2012 |
Research assistant at the University of Tuebingen, Center for Plant Molecular Biology |
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10/2006 - 09/2011 |
Diploma student ath the University of Hohenheim, Germany |
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SWITCH-HD |
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Inactivation of mutant huntingtin in different primary BACHD rat neurons. The major aim of SwitchHD is the inactivation of mutant huntingtin in different areas of the brain to investigate their contribution to the disease pathogenesis. Primary striatal, cortical and hypothalamic neurons are screened for mutant huntingtin-related disruption of molecular pathways of cell energy metabolism, survival and death by means of gene silencing. |
Arianna Novati is a biologist with background in in the fields of animal physiology and behavioral neuroscience. Currently she is a postdoctoral fellow in the Switch HD project, transferred from QPS Austria to the University of Tuebingen (EKUT). Her work within the project aims to contribute to the behavioral characterization of the BACHD rat model and will focus on depressive like behavior, maternal care and sexual behavior. Her research will include also analyses of molecular markers related to behavioral phenotypes as well as brain epigenetic changes associated to environmental manipulations in BACHD rats. Her secondment is meant to convey experience on test procedures for cognitive deficits in rats from QPS to EKUT and transfer knowledge on psychiatric like symptoms in BACHD rats back to QPS. |
Education |
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2003 – 2006 |
Bachelor of Science (Food and Nutritional Science) |
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2006 – 2010 |
Doctor of Philosophy (Molecular Biology) |
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Working experience |
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2011 – 2012 |
Postdoctoral Fellow (Regenerative medicine) |
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2012 – 2014 |
Postdoctoral Research Associate (Neurodegeneration and gene therapy) |
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2014 – 2015 |
Postdoctoral Fellow (Neuroimaging) |
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2015.02 – Present |
Postdoctoral Fellow (Neurodegeneration) |
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SWITCH-HD |
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Huntington disease is an autosomal dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder with no effective treatment at present. In this project, the effects of down-regulating the mutant huntingtin on rescuing the HD symptoms in the transgenic BACHD model will be investigated using a gene therapy approach coupled to neuroimaging, neuropathological and behavioural analyses. I will be delivering a viral-based vector for inactivating mutant huntingtin in the hypothalamus and characterize the treated animals by behavioural tests, neuroimaging, biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and neuropathological analyses. |
Working Experience |
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December 2014- present |
Postdoctocroral Researcher, QPS Austria |
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2010 –2014 |
PhD (partly funded by Marie Curie fellowship) |
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2005 - 2008 |
Research assistant |
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Education |
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2003 - 2005 |
MSc Neuroscience Institute for Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Centre Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, |
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1999 - 2003 |
BSc Biology |
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Work to be performed within SwitchHD: |
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1. |
in vivo inactivation of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) in striatum and hypothalamus of BACHD rats by intrathecal administration of virus vector construct; |
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2. |
further characterize the cognitive deficits and psychiatric symptoms of BACHD rats in different mazes setups; |
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3. |
longitudinal CSF sampling, biochemical measurements in the CSF, blood and brain tissue; |
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4. |
evaluating the effects of selectively inactivation of mHTT in striatum. |
Work Experience |
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Jan.2014-present |
Post-Doc in the Huntington Disease Research Group at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tuebingen Research topic: Neuropathogenesis of HD and Dystonia |
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Jul.2013-Dec.2013 |
Post-Doc at at QPS Austria GmbH Research topic: Silencing transgene mutant huntingtin in BACHD rats using viral transduction to deliver recombinase Cre |
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Nov.2007-Jun.2013 |
Ph.D. candidate in the Huntington Disease Research Group at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tuebingen Research topic: Generation and Characterization of BACHD transgene rats expressing full-length human mutant huntingtin |
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Sep.2006-Oct.2007 |
Undergraduate student at Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tuebingen Research topic: Aging’s effect on neurodegeneration processes in Alzheimer disease |
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Works performed for SWITCH-HD |
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1. | Transferring knowledge to QPS regarding genotyping and handling of BACHD rats |
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2. | Evaluation of transduction efficacy in vitro and in vivo in BACHD rats. For this work, Libo Yu-Taeger performed viral transduction using primary cortical neurons and intrastriatal injection in BACHD rats. Cre-mediated excision of floxed DNA sequence in the transgene mutant huntingtin (mHTT) was confirmed in vitro and in vivo. The transduction efficiency was investigated showing approximately 40% transduced cells in vitro and 5% in vivo. The expressions of mHTT on the RAN and protein levels were compared between viral transduced cells/striatum and the controls. Reduced mHTT expression was found in the viral transduced primary cortical neurons, while there was no difference of mHTT expression was detected in the viral injected striatum due to very low transduction efficiency in vivo |