Dr Marcelo Barria
Group Leader / Research Fellow
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 537 1980
- Fax: +44 (0)131 343 1404
- Email: Marcelo.Barria@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit
Bryan Matthews Building
Western General Hospital - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH4 2XU
- Street
-
Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Chancellor’s Building
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH16 4SB
Background
Team leader and head of the Protein Biochemistry Laboratory at the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
PhD in Molecular and Clinical Medicine at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Research Associate at the George And Cynthia W Mitchell Center For Alzheimer's Disease And Other Brain Related Illnesses, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, Texas, USA.
Graduate in Biology (specialisation in Virology) at the University Austral of Chile, Chile; Licentiate in Biological Sciences.
Responsibilities & affiliations
Dr Barria is currently the Head of the Protein Biochemistry Laboratory at the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Research summary
Currently, neurodegenerative diseases are attracting the interest of the scientific community due to the dramatic increase in the number of cases and their impact on public health. Many of these diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and prion diseases, share common features and molecular patterns including protein misfolding, protein aggregation, and cell death. There is an unrevealed understanding on the specific mechanisms of how these aggregation process starts, and how they are implicated with complex pathways to trigger finally toxicity and neuronal loss. Prion research has been utilized to reveal details of protein misfolding disorders expanding the possibility to develop an early diagnostic method and future treatments for prions disease and to other protein misfolded disorders.
Current research interests
Dr Barria research interests lie in the field of neurodegenerative disorders, and for the last two decades He has been investigating the molecular pathology of prion diseases using tissue-based approaches, and animal and in vitro models. Prion diseases are associated with the conformational change of a normal protein, termed the prion protein, to a misfolded isoform. They can affect both animals and humans, and they are transmissible and fatal. Dr Barria current research interests are to explore (i) the molecular basis of human and animal prion diseases and their potential for zoonotic transmission; (ii) the effect of cofactors which may influence prion conversion; (iii) the events that trigger their spontaneous formation; and (iv) developing of highly sensitive molecular tools for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative illnesses.-
Variant CJD: Reflections a Quarter of a Century on
In:
Pathogens, vol. 10, pp. 1413
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111413
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Prion strains associated with iatrogenic CJD in French and UK human growth hormone recipients
In:
Acta Neuropathologica Communications, vol. 9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40478-021-01247-x
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Understanding Intra-Species and Inter-Species Prion Conversion and Zoonotic Potential Using Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification
In:
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, vol. 13
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.716452
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Phenotypic diversity of genetic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease: a histo-molecular-based classification
In:
Acta Neuropathologica
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-021-02350-y
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Fatal insomnia: the elusive prion disease
In:
BMJ Case Reports, vol. 14, pp. e241289
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-241289
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Prion Diseases: A Unique Transmissible Agent or a Model for Neurodegenerative Diseases?
In:
Biomolecules, vol. 11, pp. 207
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11020207
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Epitope mapping of the protease resistant products of RT-QuIC does not allow the discrimination of sCJD subtypes
In:
PLoS ONE, vol. 14, pp. e0218509
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218509
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Susceptibility of Human Prion Protein to Conversion by Chronic Wasting Disease Prions
In:
Emerging Infectious Diseases, pp. 1482-1489
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2408.161888
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
TDP-43 as a potential biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Bmc neurology, vol. 18, pp. 90
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1091-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Rapid amplification of prions from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cerebrospinal fluid: Detection of vCJD prions in human CSF samples
In:
Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cjp2.90
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)