Introducing MouseDoctor3

Hello, and thank you for reading my first post as MouseDoctor3.  Here's a brief introduction so you know my background...


Name: Dr Jodie Stephenson

Role: postdoctoral research assistant

Bosses: MouseDoctor and Dr Love

Location: primarily the Blizard Institute, QMUL, but also Imperial College London and VU University of Amsterdam (i.e. I get to travel around a lot).

Project (briefly): testing potential drugs for MS in a mouse model.

Project (in more detail): translocator protein (TSPO) has been under investigation for many years in MS and it may be involved in unwanted activation of certain cell types in MS. My project will try to further understand the role and function of TSPO in MS. I will also be testing the efficacy of TSPO ligands (drugs) as a treatment in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model. The EAE mouse model is currently the most common model used in MS and will hopefully give us an indication of whether the drugs will work in patients. Another post to explain TSPO will be written soon.

Previous experience: I did my PhD at the University of Sheffield working in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). During the project I was investigating a new mouse model of ALS, looking in to the motor function, behaviour and pathology of the mice. Prior to this, I worked with the ALS clinical team and did a Masters in Translational Neuroscience. 

Aims on the blog: to bring you updates on my project and help increase understanding of the translation between the EAE mouse model and MS patients. 

Follow me on twitter @neuroruncake