Increasing evidence suggests that Parkinson’s disease (PD) – a debilitating disease that affects the nervous system – initiates in the gut and that the microbiome plays an essential role. During her PhD studies, Line Friis Bakmann Christensen investigated if certain bacterial proteins, called functional amyloids, could be responsible for the initiation/progression of PD. These proteins form structures that are highly similar to structures found in the brains of PD patients. Line Friis Bakmann Christensen compared microbiomes from healthy rats with those of a PD rat model to try to identify novel functional amyloid proteins and investigated if these proteins could affect the PD related protein alpha-synuclein.

The research presented in this thesis contribute to our understanding of the diverse functions of functional amyloid proteins, how to identify this type of protein and the interplay between different amyloid proteins.

The PhD study was completed at Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Tuesday, 15 September at 13:15
Place: Building 1593, room 012, iNANO Auditorium, iNANO, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C
Title of PhD thesis: Why you should always go with your gut feeling – The role of functional amyloids in Parkinson’s disease
Contact information: Line Friis Bakmann Christensen, e-mail: line_fbc@hotmail.com, tel.: +45 53601383
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate Professor Meytal Landau, Faculty of Biology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Professor Michael Toft Overgaard, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Denmark
Professor Jan Skov Pedersen (chairman), iNANO and Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor:
Professor Daniel Erik Otzen, iNANO and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor:
Associate Professor Morten S. Dueholm, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Denmark

Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.

Due to the coronavirus situation, Aarhus University is physically closed. Therefore, the PhD thesis will not be available for reading at the offices of the PhD administration. Instead, interested parties may send an e-mail to gradschool.nat@au.dk, and receive a digital copy of the PhD thesis. Please note, it may in certain cases be necessary to make an individual arrangement to read the PhD thesis.