I was in the United Kingdom for more than 11 years working in academia as a Senior Research Assistant in The University of Leeds before completing a PhD in 2019 within the same group. I then transitioned to more of an industrial environment working on early drug discovery at Cambridge and Oxford.
Before moving to the United Kingdom, I worked as a research assistant at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria for 5 years. One of my achievements included defining a function for a major protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease, which was innovative and a major technical accomplishment. I then went to work for one year as a Senior Research Technician at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, Canada where I helped reveal new roles of various genes associated with colon cancer. After completing my PhD in Leeds, I moved to Cambridge and worked at the ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute where I investigated the relevance and therapeutic potential of neurodegeneration targets and mechanisms. After this, I moved to Oxford and worked at the biotech company Arctoris. In addition to being the Laboratory manager, I was also one of the Senior Scientists that utilized the company’s unique automation platform to guide and rapidly progress in-house drug discovery programs from target to candidate.
I am now appointed Research Officer in Prof Michael Parker’s Laboratory to develop cell biology and drug screening assays for new drug candidates for the treatment of the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases.
Key Achievements
2022: Colleagues’ Choice Award, Arctoris Ltd.
2018: Best Oral Presentation Award, The University of Leeds Postgraduate Scientific Symposium
2017: Young Scientist Travel Award to present oral presentation at The International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) conference in Paris, France
2016 – 2019: Alzheimer’s Society UK PhD Scholarship
Publications
Tsatsanis A, McCorkindale AN, Wong BX, Patrick E, Ryan TM, Evans RW, Bush AI, Sutherland GT, Sivaprasadarao A, Guennewig B, Duce JA. The acute phase protein lactoferrin is a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease and predictor of Aβ burden through induction of APP amyloidogenic processing. Mol Psychiatry. 2021 Oct;26(10):5516-5531. doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01248-1. Epub 2021 Aug 16. PMID: 34400772; PMCID: PMC8758478.
Tsatsanis A, Wong BX, Gunn AP, Ayton S, Bush AI, Devos D, Duce JA. Amyloidogenic processing of Alzheimer’s disease β-amyloid precursor protein induces cellular iron retention. Mol Psychiatry. 2020 Sep;25(9):1958-1966. doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-0762-0. Epub 2020 May 22. PMID: 32444869.
Tsatsanis A, Dickens S, Kwok JCF, Wong BX, Duce JA. Post Translational Modulation of β-Amyloid Precursor Protein Trafficking to the Cell Surface Alters Neuronal Iron Homeostasis. Neurochem Res. 2019 Jun;44(6):1367-1374. doi: 10.1007/s11064-019-02747-y. Epub 2019 Feb 22. PMID: 30796750; PMCID: PMC6525264.
Lopez Sanchez MIG, Waugh HS, Tsatsanis A, Wong BX, Crowston JG, Duce JA, Trounce IA. Amyloid precursor protein drives down-regulation of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation independent of amyloid beta. Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 29;7(1):9835. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-10233-0. PMID: 28852095; PMCID: PMC5574989.
O’Brien CA, Kreso A, Ryan P, Hermans KG, Gibson L, Wang Y, Tsatsanis A, Gallinger S, Dick JE. ID1 and ID3 regulate the self-renewal capacity of human colon cancer-initiating cells through p21. Cancer Cell. 2012 Jun 12;21(6):777-92. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2012.04.036. PMID: 22698403.
Duce JA, Tsatsanis A, Cater MA, James SA, Robb E, Wikhe K, Leong SL, Perez K, Johanssen T, Greenough MA, Cho HH, Galatis D, Moir RD, Masters CL, McLean C, Tanzi RE, Cappai R, Barnham KJ, Ciccotosto GD, Rogers JT, Bush AI. Iron-export ferroxidase activity of β-amyloid precursor protein is inhibited by zinc in Alzheimer’s disease. Cell. 2010 Sep 17;142(6):857-67. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.08.014. PMID: 20817278; PMCID: PMC2943017.
Structural Biology
We determine the three-dimensional atomic structures of proteins involved in disease, with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. These structures help us to explore protein function, as well as to discover new drugs.
Lab head: Professor Michael Parker