Andreas Janshoff
During the first funding period, we investigated the role of alpha-synuclein (aSyn), a key player in Parkinson’s disease (PD), in the synapse, in order to identify molecular and functional effects. In the next funding period we will systematically investigate the interactions of aSyn with other cellular proteins (as synaptic proteins), and will identify postsynaptic proteins that mediate the uptake of aSyn. We hypothesize that proteins that interact with aSyn may affect its aggregation propensity and its release from cells, a topic of great relevance in the context of the spreading of pathology in synucleinopathies.