Sonal Das Joins the MRC-PPU
We warmly welcome Sonal Das, who joined the MRC-PPU on Monday 6th January.
Sonal will play a major role in helping to further develop the MRC-PPU. This will include organising our public engagement in science activities, taking charge of the MRC-PPU Reagents website, coordinating major MRC-PPU projects/collaborations, helping to develop and improve MRC-PPU scientific services, and aiding our unit's PIs with grant funding applications.
Sonal was previously a Senior Associate Director of the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) in New York City (2009-2013), which is the world's largest foundation supporting Parkinson's disease research. Here she oversaw and coordinated many of the MJFF grant funding programmes. A major part of Sonal's work at the MJFF also involved interacting with Parkinson's researchers from many different institutions, organising research review meetings to evaluate progress and identify new areas for research. She led initiatives to develop novel tools and reagents for PD research (including antibodies and viral vectors) and facilitated collaborations between researchers in industry and academia. Finally, Sonal was also involved in presenting information about Parkinson's research to the general public and to potential donors.
Prior to working in the MJFF Sonal did her PhD project in the laboratory of Gary Banker at Oregon Health and Science University (2000-2005) where she worked on understanding trafficking motifs regulating dendritic receptor localisation in primary hippocampal neurons. Sonal subsequently did a postdoc with Stan Froehner at the University of Washington (2006-2009), where she studied the trafficking of aquaporin-4, a water channel expressed by astrocytes that selectively localizes to the blood brain barrier and regulates water homeostasis between the vasculature and cellular components of the brain and is thought to play a key role in the brain edema that occurs after trauma or stroke. Sonal established a cell culture system to evaluate the localization and trafficking of aquaporin-4, developed reagents for live cell imaging of this protein, and examined the trafficking of aquaporin 4 was altered by oxygen/glucose deprivation.
Sonal will play a major role in helping to further develop the MRC-PPU. This will include organising our public engagement in science activities, taking charge of the MRC-PPU Reagents website, coordinating major MRC-PPU projects/collaborations, helping to develop and improve MRC-PPU scientific services, and aiding our unit's PIs with grant funding applications.
Sonal was previously a Senior Associate Director of the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) in New York City (2009-2013), which is the world's largest foundation supporting Parkinson's disease research. Here she oversaw and coordinated many of the MJFF grant funding programmes. A major part of Sonal's work at the MJFF also involved interacting with Parkinson's researchers from many different institutions, organising research review meetings to evaluate progress and identify new areas for research. She led initiatives to develop novel tools and reagents for PD research (including antibodies and viral vectors) and facilitated collaborations between researchers in industry and academia. Finally, Sonal was also involved in presenting information about Parkinson's research to the general public and to potential donors.
Prior to working in the MJFF Sonal did her PhD project in the laboratory of Gary Banker at Oregon Health and Science University (2000-2005) where she worked on understanding trafficking motifs regulating dendritic receptor localisation in primary hippocampal neurons. Sonal subsequently did a postdoc with Stan Froehner at the University of Washington (2006-2009), where she studied the trafficking of aquaporin-4, a water channel expressed by astrocytes that selectively localizes to the blood brain barrier and regulates water homeostasis between the vasculature and cellular components of the brain and is thought to play a key role in the brain edema that occurs after trauma or stroke. Sonal established a cell culture system to evaluate the localization and trafficking of aquaporin-4, developed reagents for live cell imaging of this protein, and examined the trafficking of aquaporin 4 was altered by oxygen/glucose deprivation.