My project is to understand the role of microglia in development, tauopathy, and ageing. As a person get older, microglia have been found to ?eat? synapses of stressed but still functional neurons, possibly driving the disease progression of many neurodegenerative disorders. Phagocytic receptors stimulate the ?eating? of nearby synapses as stressed signals are released. These receptors are potential therapeutic targets as a way to halt the progression of symptoms. However, we still know little about the downstream signalling involved with these recepotors. Therefore, my project is to expand on work previously carried out on a specific phagocytic receptor and see the extent of its involvement in development, tauopathy, and ageing in the brain.
