Natasha Vassileff joins Clear Vision Research!

I recently joined Clear Vision Research to investigate the link between neurodegenerative diseases and neuroinflammation. My research began at La Trobe University were I completed my undergraduate studies, honours year, and PhD focusing on extracellular vesicles, a form of cell-to-cell communication, and their role in the motor neuron disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. I was interested in understanding the role these vesicles played in propagating the disease through alterations in their protein and miRNA cargo.

Throughout my studies I became fascinated with the immune cells of the brain and how their prolonged activation, due to neuroinflammation, alters the protein cargo of extracellular vesicles. This lead me to investigate how nitric oxide, a product of these activated immune cells was altering the post-translational modifications of proteins that were being loaded into the vesicles. I am now interested in understanding whether these modifications are altering the function of these proteins and why these modified proteins are being communicated to other cells in the body.

Joining the Clear Vision Research Group, I will continue researching the protein post translational modifications induced through neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. I hope to better understand the effect of these modified proteins on the pathogenesis and progression of neurodegeneration.

- Natasha