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Elena Di Daniel

Head of Biology

The Biology team in the Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ODDI) is evaluating novel dementia targets that modulate mechanisms of neuroinflammation and proteostasis.

In vitro cellular assays using disease relevant cells e.g. rodent primary neurons, as well as human iPSC derived neurons and glia are utilized to study a number of targets that have recently emerged from genetic studies in Alzheimer’s disease.

Targets that have potential for drug discovery are prosecuted into screening assays utilizing biochemical or biophysical methods to identify small molecule inhibitors, activators or simply binders to such targets.

We also utilize phenotypic screening approaches. We recently completed a successful phenotypic screening campaign that has identified inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

We further test and profile such compound hits, as well as compounds from our target-based screenings, in order to identify the best molecules for progression into drug development.