Professor Gabriele Kaminski Schierle

Research

Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Ageing, brain organoids, microelectrode arrays, highresolution imaging, fluorescence lifetime imaging, machine learning

Gabriele Kaminski Schierle is Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK, and serves as the leader of the Molecular Neuroscience group. After her studies in Switzerland at the Université de Fribourg, she moved to Sweden and obtained her PhD in 1999 from Lund University, where she discovered a method that significantly increases the survival rate of neurones transplanted into the brains of patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Although the therapeutic success of the transplantation method was spectacular, she soon realised that the grafting of human embryonic tissue cannot constitute a long-term medical strategy and that cures must be sought by addressing the root causes of the disease. A personal fellowship from the Wellcome Trust permitted her to come to Cambridge and begin training on the molecular biology of neurodegenerative diseases. She has since built up an internationally recognised research group and infrastructure to investigate the molecular mechanisms causing proteins to misfold and form amyloid aggregates in model systems mimicking aspects of PD, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Huntington’s Disease. Her group has pioneered a research approach that combines advanced biophysical/optical methods with molecular neurobiology for research into neurodegeneration.

QUALIFICATIONS
2021 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
1996 – 1999 PhD in Medicine, Lund University, Sweden
1991 – 1996 Swiss Diploma in Biology (MSc equivalent), Université de Fribourg, Switzerland

ACADEMIC CAREER
2023 Professor (grade 12) of Molecular Neuroscience,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
2021 – 2023   Professor (grade 11) of Molecular Neuroscience,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
2020 – 2021   Reader of Molecular Neuroscience
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
2015 – 2020   Lecturer in Molecular Biotechnology,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
2011 – 2015   Senior PDRA and Group Leader for Biology,
at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
2005 – 2011   PDRA (part time ca 50%) at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
2001 – 2005   PDRA at the Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, UK
1999 – 2001   PDRA at the Department of Physiological Sciences, Lund University, Sweden

OTHER APPOINTMENTS AND AFFILIATIONS
2020 CSO of the Cambridge Infinitus Research Centre,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
(https://circe.ceb.cam.ac.uk)
2018 – 2019 Scientific consultant for the Federal Research Agency of Korea.
2017 Director of the MPhil in Biotechnology,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
(https://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/postgraduates-tab/mphil-biotechnology)
2015 – 2020 Co-director of the Cambridge Infinitus Research Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK (https://circe.ceb.cam.ac.uk)
2015 Head of the Molecular Neuroscience Group,
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, UK
(https://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/research/groups/molecular-neuroscience-group
2004 – 2005 Scientific Consultant for Zyentia Ltd., Cambridge, UK
2000 – 2002 Scientific consultant and project leader for a Danish pharmaceutical company (Lundbeck A/S)

HONORS
1996   Marie Curie PhD fellowship of the EU
1999   Fellowship from the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (USA)
2000   Future Scientific Leader award from the Swedish Society of Medical Research for improving neuronal survival
of transplanted neurons in Parkinson’s disease
2002   Wellcome Trust Advanced Training Fellowship
2005   Foulkes Foundation Fellowship

Publications

Key publications:

Chung CW, Stephens AD, Konno T, Ward E, Avezov E, Kaminski CF, Hassanali AA, Kaminski Schierle GS.” Intracellular Aβ42 aggregation leads to cellular thermogenesis”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 144, 22, 10034–10041, 2022.

Stephens AD, Qaisrani MN, Ruggiero MT, Díaz Mirón G, Morzan UN, González Lebrero MC, Jones STE, Poli W, Bond AD, Woodhams PJ, Kleist EM, Grisanti L, Gebauer R, Zeitler JA, Credgington D, Hassanali A, Kaminski Schierle GS, “Intrinsic fluorescence in non-aromatic peptide structures is induced by collective vibrations, charge reorganisation and short hydrogen bonds, as shown in a new glutamine-related structure” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, 118 (21), 2021.

Stephens AD, Zacharopoulou M, Moons R, Fusco G, Seetaloo N, Chiki A, Woodhams PJ, Mela I, Lashuel H, Phillips JJ, De Simone A, Sobott F, Kaminski Schierle GS “Extent of N-terminus exposure of monomeric alpha-synuclein determines its aggregation propensity” Nat Commun 11, 2820 (2020).

Qamar S, Wang G, Randle SJ, Simone Ruggeri F, Varela JA, Lin JQ, Phillips EC, Miyashita A, Williams D, Ströhl F, Meadows W, Ferry R, Dardov VJ, Tartaglia GG, Farrer LA, Kaminski Schierle GS, Kaminski CF, Holt CE, Fraser PE, Schmitt-Ulms G, Klenerman D, Knowles TP, Vendruscolo M, St George-Hyslop P, “FUS Phase Separation Is Modulated by a Molecular Chaperone and Methylation of Arginine Cation-π Interactions”, (2018) Cell 173, 720-734.

Lautenschläger J, Stephens AD, Fusco G, Ströhl F, Curry N, Zacharopoulou M, Michel CH, Laine R, Nespovitaya N, Fantham M, Pinotsi D, Zago W, Fraser P, Tandon A, St George-Hyslop P, Rees E, Phillips JJ, De Simone A, Kaminski CF, Kaminski Schierle GS, "C-terminal calcium binding of α-synuclein modulates synaptic vesicle interaction", Nature Communications (2018), online, pp1-13.

Other publications:

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&us...