May 2023
A new collaborative work with Dag Aarsland & Team (Norway) is now out! In this study, Alberto Jaramillo-Jimenez suggests that abnormalities in the TCA cycle could be linked to cognitive decline in mild dementia patients. Serum TCA cycle metabolites were analyzed in a cohort of mild dementia patients, and potential interactions with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) or Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and APOE-ε4 genotype were explored. The study found that serum citrate concentrations could be associated with subsequent cognitive decline, as well as isocitrate concentrations in APOE-ε4 carriers. The findings could be significant in the development of early interventions for cognitive decline in mild dementia patients.
Check it out: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567724923000399?via%3Dihub
April 2023
Want to apply to any IBRO grant but do not know how? Check out this Webinar and apply (it's free!):
Link: https://ibro.org/webinar-crafting-ibro-grant-application/
March 2023
We're excited to welcome Nicole Hofman and Christopher O'Mahoney to our lab! We can't wait to see the fresh ideas and perspectives that they will bring to our ongoing research. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of science and make new discoveries that will benefit us all. Welcome aboard!
January 2023
We are sure all Neuroendocrine researchers working on the field met Giancarlo Panzica, one of the organizers of the International Meeting on Steroids and Nervous System, at some stage in their academic career. Unfortunately, he passed away in July of this year. To celebrate our colleague and friend, a symposium " State of the art on Steroids and Nervous System: In memory of Giancarlo" will be organized virtually on February 23-24, 2023.
https://www.neurosteroids.unito.it/scientific-program
Attendance will be free, but due to the limited number of access to the event, an email registration will be needed (please reply to neurosteroids@unito.it).
Want to know more about phloretin, a natural estrogen receptor agonist? Take a look at our new published paper on its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. This study was developed by Kubra Ongay, as part of her MSc Biomolecular Science thesis, and in collaboration with Daniel Granato. More exciting results coming up!!!!
November 2022
Our new paper is out!!!
Our finding shows that sex, gonadal hormones, and the hormone replacement therapy Tibolone appears to interact in mitochondrial metabolism and neurodegeneration pathways - with possible implications for study design and intervention. Find it here: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/23/14754
Congratulations Andrew, well done!
October 2022
Some exciting news!
Andrew had been selected and recently attended the 4th ISN-JNC Flagship School: “Brain Metabolism in Health and Disease” in Schmerlenbach, Germany. This was a great event with the participation of speakers well known in the metabolism field!
Andrew is now in Madrid (Spain) for an internship funded by IBRO to run some experiments in the lab of Dr Angeles Arevalo at the Cajal Institute. Great results coming up...
June 2022
Our lab has a new Postdoctoral fellow! Abdoh Taleb finished his doctoral studies in China and moved to Ireland to start his Postdoctoral position in Neuroscience funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Warm welcome from our team, Abdoh, and we do really hope you enjoy UL and Ireland!
Summer is here, this means new students are joining our lab to work on mitochondria-related projects. As a recipient of a Roibeárd Thornton Memorial- Janssen (companies of Johnson and Johnson) fellowship, Emma Noonan, now a 3rd year Bioscience student, will develop her skills in oxidative phosphorylation in cells under metabolic dysfunction.
Two ERASMUS students also join our team. Both from Spain, Rosa and Enrique will work on a project to investigate how tibolone regulates lipid metabolism in in vitro cells.
Welcome Emma, Rosa and Enrique. We hope you enjoy working with us over the summer.
Our PhD student Andrew has been awarded an Exchange fellowship from International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) for an internship in the laboratory of Dr Arevalo at Cajal Institute, Madrid, Spain. Part of his PhD project will be carried out there using the Four Core genotype mice to assess sex differences in mitochondria! Well done and congrats Andrew!
May 2022
New original paper from our lab is out!!! We identify two novel ligands able to to bind CCR2, a membrane receptor widely involved in TBI-induced inflammation.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332222005443
Congratulations Kilian Sachdev and Kevin Lynch, both Bioscience graduates, for this outstanding work!!!
Our lab is delighted to have been awarded under the Frontiers for the Future Programme. Our grant will focus on neuroglobin, traumatic brain injury and tibolone and investigate how/why sex matters in mitochondria response to injury.
This is an international collaborative project with Dr David Ramírez (@davidmau @theramirezlab ) at Universidad de Concepción (Chile) to explore drugs that protect mitochondria in a sex-dependent manner following TBI.
We sincerely thank Science Foundation Ireland for this great support and for the evaluators/reviewers for taking the time and effort and for appreciating our proposal. New exciting research is coming up!!!
Our PhD student Andrew McGovern did a great presentation at Pint of Science Ireland in Limerick last night (12/05/2022). Congrats Andrew!!
March 2022
A new original paper from our group is out! This international collaborative paper with Janneth Gonzalez & team at PUJ (Colombia) and David Ramírez at Universidad de Concepción (Chile) reports prohibitin as a key mitochondrial protein being regulated by dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a metabolite of testosterone, and significantly involved in traumatic brain injury pathology. TBI patients suffer from hypogonadism, so treatment with DHT, a metabolite of testosterone, might be a promising therapeutic approach! #TBI #DHT #testosterone #prohibitin
Two new papers in collaboration with Janneth Gonzalez & team are now out!!! In the review by Vesga-Jiménez et al we deeply discussed the implications of fatty acids, in particular palmitic acid, an unsaturated lipid, in the pathological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases. In the second paper by Cabezas et al, we used machine learning and multivariate statistical analysis to integrate lipidomics and metabolomics of human astrocytes exposed to high concentration of palmitic acid and delved into how tibolone protects these cells under lipotoxicity.
Our lab is delighted to welcome Alannah Aherne, our new Research Assistant! She will be working on a project to explore protection by neuroglobin in traumatic brain injury. We are very excited to have you in our team!!! Welcome, Alannah!
February 2022
Our lab participated in the 11th International Meeting on Steroids and Nervous System (virtual) from 19-22 February. Our PhD student Andrew McGovern made an outstanding oral presentation titled "Sex differences in mitochondrial metabolism from a proteomic analysis of a gonadectomised and tibolone treated mouse model". Well done Andrew!!!!
December 2021
Event of this month: Our lab participated in the International School of Neuroscience held from December 13-17. This was a great and unforgettable experience with the participation of 20 students and live streaming from social media.
November 2021
Congratulations to Andrew for winning the first PhD year presentation in the Research and Innovation day at Biological Sciences_UL . Well deserved and well done! More interesting things about sex differences to come!
We are hiring! Two SFI-funded positions are now available in our lab. We are looking for enthusiastic and research-driven candidates for a Postdoctoral fellow and Research Assistant positions interested in working on a project to better understand the hormonal regulation of mitochondria metabolism. Come work with us in a stunning, international, and multicultural University located in a wonderful area (Castletroy/Limerick) with lots to do! See our lab website (www.barretolab.org) for more info about us and our current projects. DM me if you have any question (George.Barreto@ul.ie)!
Applications due December 2nd.
Apply here:
https://lnkd.in/e6yS7Fze
Postdoctoral fellow (ID 047828)
Research Assistant (ID 047829)
Abstracts submission is open! Check out our event's page: https://sites.google.com/view/neurosteroids2022
New paper published in collaboration with Kristi A Kohlmeier and Altair Brito from University of Copenhagen (Denmark): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34693879/
September 2021
Bioscience Final Year Proyect season kicks off! Our lab welcomes Frances, Emer and Daniela, who will be working on mitochondria and neuroglobin-related projects!
Lea Lüdtke from RWTH Aachen University (Germany) is joining our group as Eramus Student - she will spend 3.5 months taking on a project to better understand the actions of hormones over brain cells. Welcome Lea!!!
August 2021
Our new review has just been published! Get to know more about how estrogenic compounds regulate neuroglobin signaling.
Interested to know how machine learning as a high-throughput approach is used to predict disease onset and development? Check out our new review paper!
July 2021
Léana Aberrane, an Erasmus student from France, starts her internship in our group. Her project aims to better understand the role of neuroglobin and hormone signaling in the diseased brain! Welcome Léana!!!
June 2021
We are delighted to have been funded an Ulysses 2020 award from Irish Research Council (IRC) and Health Research Board (HRB) to support our collaborative work with Dr Karim Belarbi from University of Lille (France). Our joint project aims to delve into the participation of mitochondrial proteins as potential biomarkers in Parkinson's disease patients.
Ally Crimmins joins our group as a Summer Bioscience student. Welcome Ally!
Our new logo has been launched! This identifies our key research areas and prospective studies!!!
Do you know some plants have estrogenic properties? Check out our new review on this interesting topic: Estrogenic Plants: to Prevent Neurodegeneration and Memory Loss and Other Symptoms in Women After Menopause
Andrew's first paper!!! Time to celebrate!