DrKjara Pilch
Research Fellow
Department of Brain Sciences - Faculty of Medicine
- Research FellowDepartment of Brain Sciences - Faculty of Medicine
- Burlington Danes, Hammersmith Campus, United Kingdom
BIO
Kjara is a BBSRC Discovery Fellow, interested in synaptic plasticity and dysfunction during ageing and neurodegenerative disease.
Her current project focusses on changes in dendritic spines during ageing, using in vivo 2-Photon imaging. The goal of this project is to establish how a dysregulation of certain synaptic clusters may lead to impairments in synaptic function during ageing and to reveal new targets for boosting synaptic resilience. In addition, Kjara is highly interested in cellular changes during Alzheimer's disease where she is investigating the impact of non-invasive TI brain stimulation on cortical cells in a mouse model of amyloidosis.
Her PhD work at University College London revealed novel roles for the presynaptic voltage-gated calcium channel CaV2.2 and its auxiliary subunit α2δ-1 during homeostatic synaptic plasticity in hippocampal neurons, with important implications for synaptic regulation (Pilch et al., 2022). She also collaborated on elucidating the interaction of neuronal voltage-gated calcium channels with fragile mental retardation protein (Ferron et al., 2020) and on revealing how mutations found in CACNA2D1 lead to early-onset developmental epileptic encephalitis (Dahimene et al., 2022). Other work has focussed on synaptic plasticity in a mouse model of inflammation (Bertin, Deluc, Pilch et al., 2021) and on Schwann cell morphologies after injury (Gomez-Sanches et al;, 2017).
Her interests moreover include scientific consulting, translation and innovations in the biotech/healthcare sector.
Her current project focusses on changes in dendritic spines during ageing, using in vivo 2-Photon imaging. The goal of this project is to establish how a dysregulation of certain synaptic clusters may lead to impairments in synaptic function during ageing and to reveal new targets for boosting synaptic resilience. In addition, Kjara is highly interested in cellular changes during Alzheimer's disease where she is investigating the impact of non-invasive TI brain stimulation on cortical cells in a mouse model of amyloidosis.
Her PhD work at University College London revealed novel roles for the presynaptic voltage-gated calcium channel CaV2.2 and its auxiliary subunit α2δ-1 during homeostatic synaptic plasticity in hippocampal neurons, with important implications for synaptic regulation (Pilch et al., 2022). She also collaborated on elucidating the interaction of neuronal voltage-gated calcium channels with fragile mental retardation protein (Ferron et al., 2020) and on revealing how mutations found in CACNA2D1 lead to early-onset developmental epileptic encephalitis (Dahimene et al., 2022). Other work has focussed on synaptic plasticity in a mouse model of inflammation (Bertin, Deluc, Pilch et al., 2021) and on Schwann cell morphologies after injury (Gomez-Sanches et al;, 2017).
Her interests moreover include scientific consulting, translation and innovations in the biotech/healthcare sector.
FACULTY
- Faculty of Medicine
POSITION NAME
- Research Fellow