The Jerome Lejeune Foundation postdoctoral fellowships program started in 2017 in partnership with the Sisley-d’Ornano Foundation with the aim of supporting the career development of promising young scientists working on fundamental, translational and clinical aspects of Down syndrome. Each year the call is focused on a specific topic in line with the strategic priorities of the Foundation.
On 25 February 2022, the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in Paris, hosted the 1st meeting of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows. The goal of the meeting was to have an overview of the research conducted by the fellows, promote scientific exchange and facilitate the establishment of new contacts.
At the meeting, the fellows presented their research and discussed their results and perspectives with their peers, members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation and a number of invited scientists that work on Down Syndrome or other intellectual disabilities.
The program included 14 presentations:
Melody Atkins – Institut du Fer à Moulin. France
Primary cilium-dependent cortical interneuron migration in a Down Syndrome mouse model
Daniella Balduino Victorino – ICM. France
Elucidating the effects of age-related and tissue-specific modulation of DYRK1A expression on Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology in mice
Rene Crans – Centre for Genomic Regulation. Spain
Stratifying Cognitive Improvements to Reveal the Effect of Allelic Diversity in Trisomy 21
Nakisa Malakooti – Monash University. Australia
Genes interaction linked to Down syndrome cognition: RCAN1 and ApoE
Nunzia Mollo – University of Naples Federico II. Italy
Modulating mitophagy to prevent/reverse Alzheimer-type defects in cortical neurons derived from Down syndrome iPSCs
Birger Tielemans – KU Leuven. Belgium
Cardiopulmonary-vascular disorders in Down syndrome research: a long-overlooked issue
Javier Zorrilla de San Martin – ICM. France
Excessive dendritic inhibition in the prefrontal cortex of a mouse model of Down syndrome persists throughout development into adulthood
Carlos Aya-Bonilla – University of Western Australia. Australia
Down Syndrome Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (DS-ALL): A model to study and predict treatment resistance in Paediatric Leukaemia
Aoife Murray – Queen Mary University of London. UK
Assessment of specific biological features of trisomy 21 neurons, affecting cell-cell transmission of Alzheimer’s pathology using cerebral organoids
Julio Aguado Perez – University of Queensland. Australia
iPSC-derived brain organoids as models of accelerated aging in Down Syndrome
Elsa Pittaras – Stanford University. USA
Usp16 as a new therapeutic target in Alzheimer disease and Down Syndrome?
Marta Fructuoso Castellar – ICM. France
Uncovering the signaling pathways to neurodegeneration of the Locus Coeruleus and cognitive impairments in Down syndrome
Maria Victoria Hinckelmann – IGBMC. France
Role of intellectual disability-associated gene Dyrk1a in the development of cortical interneurons
Florencia Iulita – Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Spain
Discovery of novel biomarkers signalling NGF metabolic dysfunction along the Alzheimer’s disease continuum in Down syndrome
