New professor in Cell Biology and Biochemistry

On the 1st of January 2023, Kristine Freude will assume her position as Professor in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Section for Pathophysiology.

Newly appointed Professor Kristine Freude aims to decipher molecular mechanisms in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disease implementing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). 

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are complex with polygenetic risk factors and environmental impacts contributing to disease development and progression. Kristine Freude is investigating specifically the impact of single nucleotide risk factors and their impact on AD in a sex dependent manner in humans.

Similarly, dogs can suffer from a condition termed canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), which is similar to Alzheimer’s disease regarding pathological hallmarks. In collaboration with Prof. Mette Berendt, Kristine Freude is implementing iPSC from dogs to understand the similarity and divergence between the disease in both species.

Other promising studies led by Kristine Freude are investigating the role of micrRNAs in schizophrenia, mechanisms of retinal ganglion susceptibility in glaucoma and molecular mechanisms of epilepsy in her iPSC models.

With the study of diverse neurodegenerative disease Kristine Freude hopes to unlock common mechanisms, which can be exploited for the development of pharmacological intervention strategies, benefitting the human and veterinarian medicine fields.