Georgia is researching the role of mitochondrial and cytoskeletal dysfunction in muscle in motor neuron disease (MND).
Motor neuron disease (MND) is characterised by symptoms including muscle weakness, atrophy and muscle spasms. Despite affecting both the central nervous system and skeletal muscle, the role of muscle dysfunction in disease onset and progression is understudied. In 2019 Georgia graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BSc in Biomedical Science with Employment Experience. Georgia then went on to undertake a PhD at the University of Oxford where she characterised a humanised mouse model of MND caused by mutations in the FUS gene, co-supervised by Dr Thomas Cunningham and Prof Kevin Talbot. It was during her PhD that Georgia became interested in the role of skeletal muscle dysfunction in MND and so in 2024 Georgia joined the Ngo group as a visiting researcher to investigate the role of mitochondrial and cytoskeletal changes in muscle cultures. She hopes to achieve this using live cell imaging techniques to help better understand how muscle dysfunction may contribute to MND pathology and disease progression.
Collaborations
Cunningham group (UCL, London, United Kingdom) Fisher group (UCL, London, United Kingdom) Launikonis group (University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) Stehbens group (University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia)
Funding
MRC funded 4 year DPhil project
MRC-DTP transitional fund to undertake a 6 month project at the University of Queensland
Key Publications
Devoy, A., Price, G., De Giorgio, F., Bunton-Stasyshyn, R., Thompson, D., Gasco, S., Allan, A., Codner, G. F., Nair, R. R., Tibbit, C., McLeod, R., Ali, Z., Noda, J., Marrero-Gagliardi, A., Brito-Armas, J. M., Williams, C., Öztürk, M. M., Simon, M., O'Neill, E., Bryce-Smith, S., … Cunningham, T. J. (2021). Generation and analysis of innovative genomically humanized knockin SOD1, TARDBP (TDP-43), and FUS mouse models. iScience, 24(12), 103463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103463