Ceyda Yalcin
3rd year PhD student, Neuroscience Graduate Program
Biography
Istanbul, Turkey
BS, Molecular Biology, Bahcesehir University, 2023
BA, Psychology, Bahcesehir University, 2024
Lab affiliation (Department): Dr. Kirsteen Browning (Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics)
Research project: My research focuses on the body-first spread of Parkinson’s disease. In Dr. Kirsteen Browning’s Brain-Gut Laboratory, I use an environmental model of rodent parkinsonism in which oral gavage of paraquat and lectin is used to initiate an ascending spread of alpha-synuclein misfolding and degeneration of the Substantia Nigra pars compacta (SNpc). My research project investigates the temporal pattern of reactive astrogliosis and its relationship to neurodegeneration, and whether GLP-1 receptor agonists provide neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis.