At the conceptual level the “Mechanisms of memory and Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis” research team will work on the mechanisms underlying learning and memory, and in different conditions that lead to neurodegeneration, with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.

At the technical level, this is a multidisciplinary team, with expertise in biochemical, cellular imaging, animal behavior, electrophysiology and brain MRI methodologies; and experience in cell culture, animal models and human cohorts. Therefore, our goal is to tackle scientific questions with the most adequate technical approach, joining efforts with different disciplines.

The research team will work around projects addressing research lines within the scope of learning and memory and neurodegenerative disorders that impact cognition:

1. Synaptic plasticity regulation along the longitudinal hippocampal axis.
The main goal of this project is to understand how different subdivisions of the hippocampus, along its longitudinal axis, from dorsal to ventral in rodents, contribute to differential components of spatial memory.

2. Lipids in learning and memory.
Here, we will study how lipid signaling affects learning and memory. Based on lipidomic signatures, we are focusing on the impact of the phospholipase D (PLD) pathway on behaviors that rely on the longitudinal hippocampal axis.

3. Lipids in Alzheimer’s disease and associated neurodegenerative disorders.
In this project we are following our long standing work using lipidomics to unravel signatures that highlight the role of lipid signaling in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

4. Sleep, Synaptic plasticity and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleep has been shown to be fundamental for synaptic plasticity and sleep dysregulation has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. Here, we will explore the mechanistic links between these associations.

5. Brain Imaging in Alzheimer’s disease and associated neurodegenerative disorders.
Our team has a strong background in clinical neuroimaging and here we use two main approaches: studying cohorts that have both neuropathology and brain MRI data; and developing new MRI-based segmentation algorithms.

6. Brain Imaging in cognition.
Here, we will use MRI-based approaches to question and challenge the roles of the hippocampus in different conditions, targeting social memory and spatial information.