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Dr Teresa Niccoli
Darwin Building
Institute of Healthy Ageing
UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment
London
WC1E 6BT
Appointment
- Senior Research Associate
- Genetics, Evolution & Environment
- Div of Biosciences
- Faculty of Life Sciences
Biography
I am an ARUK Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Healthy Ageing (IHA) in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment (GEE). I obtained my PhD in 2002 from the laboratory of Paul Nurse at Cancer Research UK, investigating cell polarity in the yeast S. pombe. I then joined the laboratory of Daniel St Johnson at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge as a Beit Memorial Fellow, looking at polarity during Drosophila oogenesis. I then took a career break to look after my two sons and completed a Master’s in Medical Ethics and Law at King’s College, London in 2009.
In 2010 I joined the laboratory of Prof Linda Partridge at the Institute of Healthy Ageing (IHA) at UCL to work on Drosophila models of neurodegenerative diseases and then moved to Adrian Isaacs laboratory at the Dementia Research Centre at UCL.
In January 2019 I came back to the IHA to start my own group working on Drosophila models of dementia.
Research Groups
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My lab is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal cell death in dementia and, in particular, the role of glucose metabolism in this process. Our brains consume 20% of our body’s energy, however, nerve cells can’t store energy or use fat as a fuel so they have to generate all their energy from sugar. The brain has complex molecular mechanisms to ensure a constant supply of sugar to nerve cells, but in people with dementia this system gradually breaks down as disease progresses.
I investigate this question in Drosophila models of Alzheimer’s disease and Fronto Temporal Dementia. Fruit-flies make excellent models to study dementia as they have a well defined brain and don’t live very long, allowing us to study disease progression throughout their whole lifespan.
Teaching Summary
I am part of the organising committee of the UCL Dementia MSc (Neuroscience).
I organise and teach a second year SSC module for second year Medical Students and contribute to other Biosciences Courses, especially Advanced Molecular Biology, Diseases of Ageing and Neurobiology of Brain Injury and Disease.
I also supervise a number of Master and PhD students across a variety of courses.
Appointments
| 01-JAN-2019 | ARUK Senior Research Fellow | Genetics, Evolution and Environment | UCL, United Kingdom |
| 01-JAN-2016 – 31-DEC-2018 | Post-doctoral research associate | Dementia Research Institute | UCL, United Kingdom |
| 14-SEP-2010 – 31-DEC-2015 | Post-doctoral researcher | Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment | UCL, United Kingdom |
| JAN-2003 – OCT-2005 | Post-doctoral Fellow | Gurdon Institute | Cambridge University, United Kingdom |
Academic Background
| 2018 | ATQ02 - Recognised by the HEA as an Associate Fellow | University College London | |
| 2009 | Master of Arts | King's College London | |
| 2002 | Doctor of Philosophy | University College London |
