Biography

I am a neurologist with a research interest in TDP-43, a DNA/RNA-binding protein that is dysregulated in motor neuron disease and dementia including frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. TDP-43 levels in the brain are exquisitely regulated in health by autoregulation, but this mechanism is disturbed in disease. My laboratory has developed human cellular and mouse model systems to understand autoregulation with a view to normalising TDP-43 expression for therapeutic gain. We use genetic engineering technologies to create more realistic models of disease than ever before. We also aim to understand the structural, functional and molecular effects of TDP-43 misregulation on brain development, as age-related neurodegenerative diseases probably start much earlier in life than previously thought. In 2019 I received the Alzheimer’s Research UK David Hague Early Career Investigator Award. My other roles include being module 3 lead for the MSc in Clinical Neuroscience and teaching medical students clinical neurology.

Please see my Research Staff Profile for more detail.

Key publications:

• White et al., 2019. Sarm1 deletion suppresses TDP-43-linked motor neuron degeneration and cortical spine loss. Acta Neuropatholica Communications.
• White et al., 2018. TDP-43 gains function due to perturbed autoregulation in a Tardbp knock-in mouse model of ALS-FTD. Nature Neuroscience.
• Sreedharan et al., 2015. Age-Dependent TDP-43-Mediated Motor Neuron Degeneration Requires GSK3, hat-trick, and xmas-2. Current Biology.
• Vance et al., 2009. Mutations in FUS, an RNA processing protein, cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 6. Science.
• Sreedharan et al., 2008. TDP-43 mutations in familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Science.

Key collaborators:

• Dr Andrew Bassett, Wellcome Sanger Institute
• Dr Diana Cash, King's College London
• Dr Omer Bayraktar, Wellcome Sanger Institute
• Professor Peter O'Connor, University of Warwick