AIBN Seminar Series: PhD Student Seminars

We are pleased to present two students who are close to the end of their PhD here at AIBN to share their research with you.

Date: Thursday, 26 August 

Time: 12 - 1pm

Venue: Online Via Zoom

Click here to access the free seminar.

Addressing an Alzheimer’s Disease Protective Mutation in a 2D and 3D Human Model

Ms Cecilia Gomez Inclan, Wolvetang Group, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, UQ.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a public health burden scaling up in the ranking of common causes of death worldwide. Patients with this disease present a progressive decline in their memory, thinking and behaviour capabilities. In a cellular level, their neurons present neurofibrillary tangles, early mitochondrial dysfunction, decreased dendritic arborization, production and secretion of inflammatory molecules and an extracellular accumulation of β-amyloid plaques. The formation unit of these plaques is the aggregative prone beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptide and mutations in its sequence can induce an early version of AD. Interestingly, it was recently described that some Nordic populations carry an AD “protective” mutation (A673T) in this same peptide. The mechanism by which it exerts its protective features is not fully understood. This mutation seems to decrease the rate of Aβ production. However, there is unclear evidence suggesting that peptides with this mutation also aggregate less. Furthermore, it is unknown whether and to what extent the protective peptide could counteract the effect of other deleterious mutations. In this project, we aim to question the aggregative and protective properties of the A673T peptide over the effect of two different deleterious versions in a human stem cells-derived 2D and 3D neuronal model. We are exposing neural cultures and brain organoids to the protective and deleterious versions of beta amyloid and assessing characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease.
 

Bio
She studied Biomedical Sciences in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City where she started to be interested in the aging process. Currently, Cecilia is a PhD candidate in the Wolvetang lab in the L4W here in our were she focuses in aging-associated diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Ataxia Telangiectasia.

Rechargeable Aluminum Batteries

Ms Yueqi Kong, Yu Group, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, UQ. 

Rechargeable aluminum batteries (RABs) are a promising new battery technology for future renewable energy storage, owing to the high capacity (2981 mAh g-1), rich natural abundance, and good safety profile of Al. Currently, most of the RABs are based on the ionic liquids electrolyte, which can effectively realize the reversible plating and stripping of Al metal at room temperature. Despite a number of pioneering studies on this battery technology, RABs still suffer from low energy density because of the lack of high-performance cathodes. In this presentation, I describe two current works we have published about developing high-performance RAB cathodes. Two types of RAB cathodes are presented, including the conversion-type selenium cathode and the intercalation-type graphene cathode. With rational design, both the cathodes demonstrate high specific capacity with good rate and cycling performances. Our findings and the novel materials provide new inspirations for the development of high-performance RAB cathodes and have the potential to be applied in other rechargeable battery systems.

Bio
Ms. Yueqi Kong is a third-year PhD student in AIBN at the University of Queensland. She got her bachelor's and master's degrees from Shandong University in China. She specializes in electrochemical energy and conversion systems, especially rechargeable aluminum batteries.