Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group at the Institute of Neurology

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) are incurable diseases affecting an increasing number of patients by reducing their quality of life. The most prevalent NDDs in particular Alzheimer and Parkinson disease affect  ~120’000 Austrian citizens today.

There are various diseases grouped into NDDs. All show progressive and irreversible loss of neurons accompanied by the deposition of pathological conformations of physiological proteins. Therefore, NDDs are also called “proteinopathies of the brain”. However, the initial cause for the deposition of the respective protein(s) is unclear.

We are interested in neurodegenerative diseases in general with special focus on Prion diseases and the pathogenic mechanisms in proteinopathies. We focus also on developmental neurodegeneration and validation of body fluid biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.

Foto copyright Jakob Knabel /yvne.me