Roxana Carare Research Team - Our Network & Collaborators

Roy Weller

Professor of Neuropathology

Roy Weller qualified in Medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London. Following research and clinical pathology posts in London and New York, he was appointed Professor of Neuropathology in the University of Southampton UK to provide a clinical diagnostic neuropathology service and to pursue research.

Roy’s main area of research has been in the pathophysiology of fluid drainage pathways from the CNS. Initially the research involved hydrocephalus and lymphatic drainage of CSF but later concentrated on the perivascular lymphatic drainage of Interstitial Fluid and Soluble Metabolites from the brain, correlating experimental models with the pathology of human neuroimmunological disease and dementias. There is growing acceptance that failure of perivascular elimination of amyloid-beta (Aß) from the brain along the walls of ageing cerebral arteries plays a significant role in the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. The aim is to develop a broadly based translational approach to perivascular drainage of the brain and the origin of Neuro-ophthalmological disease in the search for treatment of dementias and neuroimmunological disorders.

Roxana Carare

Professor of Clinical Neuroanatomy

Roxana Carare is a medically qualified Professor of Clinical Neuroanatomy and experimental neuropathology in the University of Southampton. Having graduated in general medicine in 1994 in Bucharest, Roxana completed her PhD in experimental neuropathology in 2006, in the University of Southampton, UK. The main international recognition for Roxana Carare has come from the neuroanatomy and neuropathology interdisciplinary research she leads, demonstrating the unique lymphatic drainage pathways by which fluid and soluble amyloid are eliminated from the brain along basement membranes within the walls of cerebral capillaries and arteries (Intramural Periarterial Drainage Pathways, IPAD). The focus of her research is to manipulate the pathways to improve the clearance of amyloid and interstitial fluid from the ageing brain, preventing neurodegenerative and neurovascular disease.

Maureen Gatherer

Histochemistry specialist

Investigating proteomic changes in the cerebral vasculature of young and aged brains and those with Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy using specialised histochemistry techniques.

Matt MacGregor Sharp

Electron Microscopist

Electron microscopist specialising in pathological changes in the ultrastructure of cerebral blood vessels.

Roxana Aldea

Postdoctoral fellow

Investigating in vivo MRI imaging of the motive force driving intramural perivascular clearance.

Abby Keable

PHD Student

Modelling perivascular drainage using novel flow culture techniques to investigate toxicity of amyloid beta on different human neuronal cell types.

Jacqui Nimmo

PHD Student

Using novel vaccines to investigate immunisation strategies in synucleinopathies

Regan Doherty

MSc Student

Electron microscopist specialising in diagnostic and research electron microscopy.

Antigoni Manousopoulou

Proteomics specialist

Investigating the global proteomic profile of leptomeningeal arteries and white/grey matter using novel LC-MS based proteomic approaches.

Darek Gorecki

Professor of Molecular Medicine

Director of Research
School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth

Darek was born in Warsaw, Poland where he read medicine and obtained his PhD. His key research interest is pathogenesis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He started research in this area as a post-doctoral fellow in the Molecular Neurobiology Unit, University of Cambridge under Professor Eric A Barnard, FRS. He continued it at the Royal Free & University College Medical School in London working as a research fellow and later obtained a personal Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship. Since moving to his present laboratory in Portsmouth he has worked as a Senior Lecturer, Reader and, since 2007, Professor of Molecular Medicine. He is the Director of Research in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. In 2011 he won Distinguished Fulbright Scholarship to work at Harvard Medical School, USA researching the role of specific ATP receptors in muscular dystrophy. Read more

Ajay Verma

Professor of Neurology

Chief Medical Officer at United Neuroscience

Ajay Verma is a neurologist who is devoted to the advancement of neurotherapeutics and neurodiagnostics. He studied zoology at the University of Maryland and received his MD and his PhD in neurotoxicology from The Johns Hopkins University, training with Dr. Solomon Snyder. His neurology residency training was in the US Army at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he remained on clinical staff for another 11 years. Ajay spent 12 years on the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the US Military’s Medical School. Since leaving the Army as a Lt. Colonel in 2006, Ajay has served in leadership roles at Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Biogen where he directed drug development, biomarkers, and experimental medicine efforts in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, ALS, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis and other brain and neuromuscular disorders.

Myron Christodoulides

Reader in Molecular Bacteriology/ Microbiology

University of Southampton

Myron Christodoulides is a graduate in microbiology from University College London and the University of Glasgow and a specialist in bacteriology. After postdoctoral fellowships with the Government of Canada and at the University of Newcastle, Myron began a long association with the Neisseria Research Group at the University of Southampton. His basic research is in bacterial pathogenesis, with a primary emphasis on the cellular and molecular basis of meningitis. There is also a strong translational element to his research, which began from his PhD studies on the development of novel acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines. Current vaccine research is goal-orientated towards identification and preclinical evaluation of Neisseria meningitidis antigens as potential vaccine candidates.

Donna M Wilcock

Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research

University of Kentucky College of Medicine

The Wilcock lab is interested in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia; the second most common cause of dementia behind Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to being a major cause of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease patients commonly have vascular cognitive impairment as a co-morbidity. We have projects to examine the molecular mechanisms of vascular cognitive impairment, focusing primarily on inflammatory processes. We also have projects that determine the influence cerebrovascular disease has on the progression and severity of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as how these vascular pathologies affects response to Alzheimer’s disease targeted therapeutics. Finally, we have a project in collaboration with Elizabeth Head of Pharmacology and Frederick Schmitt of Neurology to assess neuroinflammatory changes in Down Syndrome. We are developing a translational research program examining neuroinflammatory proteins and homocysteine as modifiable biomarkers of cognitive impairment due to both Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular pathologies.

Christopher Torrens

Associate Professor in Physiology

University of Southampton

Dr Torrens received his BSc in Biological Sciences with Honours in Physiology from Glasgow Caledonian University before undertaking a PhD at the newly established FOAD centre, within the School of Medicine at the University of Southampton.

His PhD work demonstrated the maternal nutrient restriction in pregnancy lead to endothelial dysfunction in the offspring, which was apparent in their subsequent pregnancy and was transmitted to the second generation.

Following the completion of his PhD Dr Torrens remained in Southampton to continue this work on a BHF funded project before spending a short period at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland as a Visiting Research Fellow. Shortly after returning to Southampton, Dr Torrens was appointed as a lecturer in physiology in 2006.

Neil Bressloff

Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Design

Founder of Carena Healthcare, University of Southampton

As Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Design, Neil Bressloff works closely with clinicians and industry seeking to better understand a range of human diseases, particularly those in the cardiovascular system, and to design devices for treatment.

Felino Cagampang

Associate professor in Integrative Physiology

Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton

Dr Felino Cagampang is currently Associate Professor in Integrative Physiology within Medicine at the University of Southampton. He obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of the Philippines, and graduate degrees (MSc & PhD) at Nagoya University (Japan). He did his post-doctoral research work at the Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences (Japan), at King’s College London, and at the University of Manchester, in the field of circadian clock biology. In 2002, he joined the University of Southampton.

Dr Cagampang’s current research focuses on developmental programming of obesity and the metabolic syndrome, and the role of the biological clock system in disease pathologies and treatment. His work is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Diabetes UK. Dr Cagampang’s research group is based at the Institute of Developmental Sciences (Southampton General Hospital site), and comprises both clinical and basic scientist and researchers, as well as postgraduate and medical students.

Cheryl Hawkes

Lecturer in Clinical Neuroscience

My primary research interest is the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with particular focus on cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), the deposition of toxic ß-amyloid (Aß) aggregates that accumulate in the walls of blood vessels in the elderly brain. These vascular Aβ deposits cause vasoconstriction, inhibit angiogenesis and induce endothelial and smooth muscle cell death, leading to microhaemorrhage, stroke and dementia. Despite affecting nearly 30% of all elderly individuals and over 90% of AD patients, this phenomenon is significantly under-researched. Moreover, there are no currently approved therapies for the treatment or prevention of CAA.

My goal is to determine key elements that underlie cerebrovascular ageing and the development of CAA and to uncover physiologic and therapeutic mechanisms by which it can be prevented and treated.

Principle Investigators

Researchers

Students

Collaborators