PhD defense: Saba Molhemi
PhD student in the High Field MRI Lab, Saba Molhemi is defending his PhD thesis, entitled: "Alzheimer's Disease: A Bioenergetic and Energy Supply Perspective".
Info about event
Time
Location
Auditorium G206-142, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200 Aarhus N.
Organizer
Saba Molhemi
Title: Alzheimer's Disease: A Bioenergetic and Energy Supply Perspective
About the project
In Alzheimer's disease, both the supply of energy through the blood vessels and its production in the brain's cells are disrupted early. How these two sides are affected in mouse models of the disease is the subject of this PhD project from Aarhus University, Health.
The brain uses a fifth of the body's energy but keeps almost no reserves. Its energy metabolism can be measured non-invasively with phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS), but in mice this has required anesthesia, which itself alters metabolism. The project developed an MR-compatible setup for measuring in awake mice, and showed that the measurements are reproducible from day to day and that even low-dose isoflurane anesthesia lowers the brain's main energy reserve, phosphocreatine.
In a second study, two-photon microscopy was used to follow blood flow in the brain's smallest vessels after loss of the locus coeruleus, a small brainstem nucleus that supplies the brain with noradrenaline and is among the first regions to degenerate in Alzheimer's disease. The methods are now combined in a mouse model of the disease to test, by awake 31P-MRS, whether energy metabolism is altered and whether loss of the locus coeruleus worsens it.
The defense is public and takes place on Thursday 29th October 2026 at 15:00 in Auditorium G206-142, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200 Aarhus N.
To follow the PhD defense online, please use Zoom link:
https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/62696067782
ALL ARE WELCOME.
After the defense, CFIN is hosting a small reception outside the auditorium.
Assessment committee:
- Associate Professor Sebastian Frische, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University (chair)
- Professor Bojana Stefanovic, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada
- Associate Professor Barbara Lykke Lind, Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen.
Contact
For more information, please contact PhD student Saba Molhemi
Email: saba.molhemi@cfin.au.dk
Phone +45 2445 1022