Thinakaran Lab - Cell Biology of Alzheimer's Disease

My undergraduate research experience opened the research gate of exploring molecular mechanisms underlying natural herbs and promoted me to pursue a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences. My Ph.D. work focused on studying protein functions at synapses, the specialized junctions between neurons. More than a thousand proteins can be found at synapses. Understanding how those proteins interact and how those interactions contribute to the function of synapses is a big challenge. Specifically, I investigated how NMDA receptors are properly localized and regulated through direct interaction with a family of receptor tyrosine kinases named EphBs. In the Thinakaran lab, I am investigating BACE1 trafficking in neurons using advanced microscopy approaches.