The Romero-Ramos' Lab joins a new doctoral network aiming at expanding the research in Parkinson's Disease
The EU has awarded funding to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network project BICEPS, aimed at bridging the fields of immunology and neuroscience to advance the understanding of Parkinson's disease. As a starting point, 16 PhD positions are open for application, located at leading universities and companies across Europe - two of them in a DANDRITE affiliated lab.
BICEPS, which stands for Beyond neuroInflammation: new Concepts to Elucidate the peripheral immune system's vital role in Parkinson's disease (PD), is an EU-funded research initiative under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network.
Recent discoveries have revealed the involvement of the peripheral immune system in Parkinson's disease (PD). This lead to BICEPS proposing a groundbreaking perspective: PD should be regarded as a systemic disease, with immune responses that encompass both the brain and peripheral systems. This shift calls for moving beyond the neurocentric view that has dominated PD research for decades and expanding the focus to include the immune system beyond the brain.
Furthermore, recent advancements in fields such as systems biology and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data mining, diagnostics, and drug development hold transformative potential for PD research. In response, BICEPS is uniting researchers in PD, immunology, AI, and systems biology from prominent European academic institutions, startups, and established pharmaceutical companies, forming a unique consortium. The primary aim is to train a new generation of PD researchers with interdisciplinary expertise across these cutting-edge fields, positioning them to advance understanding and treatment of PD.
Two of these PhD positions will be based at DANDRITE affiliated Professor Marina Romero-Ramos' lab.
"The projects will help us to better understand the systemic immune response in Parkinson’s disease and how peripheral immune cells influence the bran immune environment. In addition, we will also investigate how such response differs between male and females with the disease. The knowledge generated will be essential to develop novel immunomodulatory therapies for neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease," explains Marina Romero-Ramos.
The application deadline is 15 January 2025.
For more information, contact Marina Romero-Ramos