Institute of Neuroimmunology
Topic
Analysis of tau proteins in clinical samples
PhD. program
Analytical chemistry
Year of admission
2024
Name of the supervisor
PharmDr. Andrej Kováč, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Natural Sciences Comenius University in Bratislava
Annotation
Tauopathies represent a heterogeneous group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases. Their main characteristic is the presence of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of abnormally phosphorylated and aggregated tau protein. Current studies highlight the importance of tau protein as a highly sensitive biomarker for the progression of these neurodegenerative diseases. The main goal of our project will be to develop and validate a specific and sensitive LC/MS method for measuring various forms of tau protein in the body fluids and tissues of patients suffering from tauopathies. In the first phase of the doctoral project, we will focus on mastering modern analytical techniques such as high-performance chromatographic methods and high-resolution mass spectrometry combined with ion mobility. In this phase, we will create a specific methodology for the simultaneous determination of selected forms of tau protein. We will then test several methods for preparing biological samples. In the second phase of the project, we will focus on analyzing samples from patients and comparing our results with immunoassays, which are currently used in the diagnosis of tauopathies.