The Rosalind Franklin Institute is welcoming Dr Naoto Watamura on Friday 9th May from 10:30 – 11:30.

To watch the seminar online, please sign up via the link below.

RAL site pass holders are welcome to attend in person (no registration required) in the Franklin’s first floor Hub. To join in person, please arrive in the R113 Franklin foyer at least 5 minutes before the start of the seminar and a member of the team will let you into the building.

Title:

Recent Advances in the Modelling of Tauopathy and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Abstract:

Tauopathies are a group of neurological disorders characterised by the pathological accumulation of filamentous hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Experimental tau pathology has previously been effectively recapitulated in animal models through the induction of mutant tau cDNA overexpression. However, some limitations exist in these models, such as the destruction of endogenous gene loci, the lack of physiological mRNA splicing, and the individual variation of overexpressed gene expression, which leads to an incomplete understanding of the pathomechanism.

To address these drawbacks, we developed human MAPT knock-in mice and introduced frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD)-causing mutations into the MAPT gene. These mouse models displayed tau pathology in the brain and behavioural abnormalities without employing an overexpression paradigm. Interestingly, we observed the pathological interaction between amyloid and tau by crossing them with App knock-in mice. Next-generation tauopathy mouse models will provide us with new insights into the etiology of tauopathy and serve as a valuable platform for evaluating the in vivo potential of drug screening for subsequent preclinical testing.

Biography:

Dr Naoto Watamura is a dedicated neuroscientist specialising in dementia research, with a strong academic background in life sciences and medical bioscience. He earned his PhD in Science from Waseda University, Japan, in 2019 under the mentorship of Professors Takaomi Saido and Toshio Ohshima. Prior to that, he obtained both his Master’s degree (2015) and Bachelor’s degree (2013) in the same field at Waseda University, working closely with Professor Toshio Ohshima.

Currently, Dr Watamura is a Research Fellow at the Dementia Research Institute at University College London, UK, where he focuses on advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, he holds a position as a Visiting Research Felloe at the Proteolytic Neuroscience Laboratory, RIKEN Centre for Brain Science, Japan. In October 2024, he also joined RIKEN BIO Co. Ltd. as a member, contributing to innovative developments in brain science and biotechnology.