Dr Bhuvaneish T Selvaraj (Chancellor's fellow)

- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- UK Dementia Research Institute, Anne Rowling Regenrative Neurology Clinic
- Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research
Contact details
- Email: bthangar@ed.ac.uk
- @bhuvaneish
Address
- Street
-
Chancellor's building
49 Little France Crescent
The University of Edinburgh - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- Eh16 4SB
Background
Bhuvaneish T Selvaraj is an engineering graduate from Anna University, India. He began his scientific research career with a Ph.D in neurobiology at University of Wuerzburg, Germany. In 2014, he moved to University of Edinburgh to undertake his post-doctoral research on human stem cell disease modelling of neurodegenerative diseases. In 2020 he was awarded Chancellor’s fellowship at University of Edinburgh.
Qualifications
2002 - 2006 B.Tech Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University
2007 - 2012 PhD Institute of Clinical Neurobiology, University of Wuerzburg
Research summary
Progressive degeneration and loss of neurons is an hallmark feature of many debilitating and incurable neurodegenerative diseases such as Dementia and Motor Neuron Disease (MND). Globally, surge in ageing population leads to rapid rise in prevalence of these diseases culminating as a major health challenge. Thus, there is an huge unmet need to understand disease mechanism and to develop novel neuroprotective strategies to combat these devastating diseases.
We are particularly interested in MND as our disease model, nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly evident that MND and fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) share common underlying mechanism. Motor neurons are amongst the longest neurons in the body with its axon extending up to a metre to connect target muscle. Accumulating evidence suggests MND is multifactorial and independent pathomechanisms affect distinct cellular compartments of motor neurons – soma and axon – leading to motor neuron loss and axon degeneration, respectively. The overarching aim of our research is to decipher the molecular pathomechanisms leading to selective vulnerability of motor neurons as observed in motor neuron disease. In addition, we also focus on understanding and exploit mechanisms that control axonal homeostasis to promote axonal maintenance and preserve axons from degeneration. To achieve this we use cutting edge technologies like human stem cells modelling including 3D organoid models, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, electrophysiology and human post-mortem studies.
Collaborators
Prof Siddharthan Chandran
Prof Colin Smith
Dr Matthew Livesey (University of Sheffield)
Dr Jenna Gregory
Affiliated research centres
-
Mitochondrial bioenergetic deficits in C9orf72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor neurons cause dysfunctional axonal homeostasis
In:
Acta Neuropathologica
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-020-02252-5
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Cortical neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells lacking FMRP display altered spontaneous firing patterns
In:
Molecular Autism
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00351-4
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Generation of twenty four induced pluripotent stem cell lines from twenty four members of the Lothian 4 Birth Cohort 1936
In:
Stem cell research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scr.2020.101851
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Improved detection of RNA foci in C9orf72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis post-mortem tissue using BaseScope™ shows a lack of association with cognitive dysfunction
In:
Brain Communications, vol. 2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcaa009
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Mutant C9orf72 human iPSC‐derived astrocytes cause non‐cell autonomous motor neuron pathophysiology
In:
Glia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/glia.23761
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Invited speaker
1. International symposium on MND/ALS - Glasgow, 2018
2. XXVI World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), Glasgow, 2018
3. Dementia research Institute - Connectome - Reading, 2018