Author: Salinas_Lab_UCL

A New Post-Doc Joins the Lab!

We are thrilled to welcome Candice as the newest post-doctoral fellow to the Salinas lab. Candice earned her PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Caen, Normandy, in the lab of Prof. Freret (COMETE INSERM/UNICAEN, France), where she investigated the role of 5-HT4R in cognitive disorders and related synaptic plasticity deficits in mice. Following her PhD, Candice held a researcher and lecturer position in Human Physiology and Neurosciences at the University of Caen, where her recent research focused on the impact of gravity changes on time perception in rodents.

Candice shares, “I am excited to continue my scientific journey in the Salinas Lab, exploring the mechanisms underlying the effects of synaptic activity on the Wnt/Fz pathway.”

We have been awarded with best poster prize in the postdoctoral category at the UCL Neuroscience Symposium 2024!

Isabel Bravo-Ferrer has been awarded with the best poster in the postdoctoral category at the UCL neuroscience symposium. She presented our work on the role of the Wnt antagonist Dkk1 in Alzheimer’s Disease and synapse degeneration.

Check out our latest paper in eLife!

We recently published a paper in eLife entitled “Downregulation of Dickkopf-3, a Wnt antagonist elevated in Alzheimer’s disease, restores synapse integrity and memory in a disease mouse model”. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide. Synapse dysfunction is one of the earliest hallmarks of AD, but the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Deficient Wnt signalling, a pathway that is crucial for the maintenance of neuronal circuits, has been linked to synapse dysfunction and loss in AD. Recent work showed that DKK3, a secreted protein that negatively regulates Wnt signalling, is present in amyloid-β aggregates that typically form in the brain of AD patients. However, the function of DKK3 in the adult brain and its role in AD remained unexplored. In this study, we provide new evidence that DKK3 levels increase in the human AD brain with the progression of the disease. Using functional and mechanistic approaches, we demonstrate a novel role for DKK3 in regulating excitatory and inhibitory synaptic integrity. Gain of function of DKK3 decreases excitatory synapse but increases inhibitory ones. Importantly, we discover that downregulation of DKK3 restores synapse number and memory in an AD mouse model. These findings further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms contributing to synaptic impairment in Alzheimer’s disease and demonstrate that activation of Wnt signalling is a potential therapeutic approach to restore neuronal connectivity in AD.