Hosts – Signal Transduction

Researcher Name: Herrera, Federico (He / Him)

Research Area(s): Cell Biology, Molecular Bases of Disease, Signal Transduction

Affiliation: Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

Country: Portugal

Website 

Scientific Interests:

The overall goal of my lab is to unravel the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in Central Nervous System (CNS) pathologies, such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, stroke, traumatic injury or brain cancer. I am specialized in developing cell models of neurodegeneration and molecular tools to visualize and study the dynamics of disease-relevant proteins in mammalian cells.

My vision is to coordinate an interdisciplinary laboratory in permanent collaboration with chemists, physicists and computational biologists, where we can train a new generation of Portuguese researchers with experience in methods from at least two of these disciplines, and able to communicate in multiple mindsets.

Our current research lines are:

• The regulation of protein self-assemblies by post-translational modifications, using both pathological (e.g. mutant huntingtin, Tau, NKX6-2) and physiological (e.g. STAT3, GFAP) self-association paradigms; and
• The development of new cellular models and molecular tools for the study of rare neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alexander disease, SPAX8 and ARSACS.

In collaboration with several chemists, biochemists, and physicists at FCUL, we are using these tools to:

• Test the effect of synthetic and natural chemicals, chaperones and ionizing radiation in cellular and molecular hallmarks of neurodegeneration
• Establish the proof-of-concept for an improved, user-friendly version of Atomic Force Microscopy

This offer applies to trainees/researchers eligible for the following fellowships

Everyone (not restricted to fellowship holders)

Other relevant information:

We have strong background in the following methods:

• Molecular cloning and site-directed mutagenesis
• Fluorescence Microscopy and Flow Cytometry
• Antibody-based methods (western blotting and immunocytochemistry)
• Mammalian cell cultures
• Protein misfolding and aggregation
• Post-translational modifications of proteins

Contact:

fherrera@fc.ul.pt