Investigating the role of calretinin in the regulation of neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron
disease are some of the most debilitating and devastating conditions to affect the human population.
To date, few treatments exist for these conditions, so new therapeutic targets need to be identified.
Calretinin is a calcium binding protein of yet unknown function that we have recently identified as a
novel regulator of neurodegeneration in the mammalian nervous system. In this project the student
will use cortical neurons from calretinin knockout mice to examine their vulnerability to various
neurodegenerative stimuli in vitro