Michele Perni1, Sam Casford1, Francesco A. Aprile1, Ellen A. Nollen2, Tuomas P.J. Knowles1, Michele Vendruscolo1, Christopher M. Dobson1
1Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry University of Cambridge, 2European Research Institute for the Biology of Aging University Medical Centre Groningen
As the first article of 2023 for this section, I am happy to share this paper by our ex-alumnus Michele Perni, which he conducted with his group at the Center for Misfolding Diseases at the University of Cambridge. The article describes an innovative method, using the wide field-of-view nematode tracking platform (WF-NTP), which enables high-throughput phenotypic characterization of large populations of Caenorhabditis elegans. Thanks to this technique, it is possible to characterize subtle behavioral changes in mutant strains in response to pharmacological treatments in a highly scalable fashion. The method has great relevance in helping to answer key questions about how a specific drug behaves in a living organism and provides novel mechanistic insights into the onset and progression of misfolding diseases.
For this technique, Dr. Perni and the research group to which he belongs have obtained the patent.