Post by The Florey

🎓 Celebrating PhD orations at The Florey! A PhD oration provides a formal opportunity for PhD candidates to showcase their research and engage in academic discussion with experts in the field. Congratulations to our PhD students who recently presented their innovative research: Yasmin Potts – Locus coeruleus function in Alzheimer’s disease 🧠 This thesis aimed to assess novel methods of targeting the locus coeruleus, a pontine nucleus centrally involved in sleep and stress, to alleviate neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Hyperactivity of locus coeruleus neurons was identified in a mouse model of tauopathy, and agitation-like behaviours were reduced through locus coeruleus inhibition with an orexin 1 receptor antagonist. Yiling Yu – Targeting α1A-adrenoreceptor with Nanobodies: From Discovery to Structural Mechanism 🧠 This PhD established a structurally-guided nanobody discovery platform targeting the alpha1A-adrenoreceptor, leading to the discovery of first-in-class antagonistic nanobodies against this challenging adrenoreceptor. The key achievements addressed a critical knowledge gap for this promising drug target, enabling the development of next-generation therapeutics with enhanced subtype specificity. Learn more about studying at The Florey: https://lnkd.in/gEKKE-Dd