Maria Tsalenchuk joins Sarah Marzi's group!

Maria Tsalenchuk has just joined the lab as a PhD student! She will work under the supervision of Dr Sarah Marzi. Maria’s project will aim to elucidate the biochemical mechanisms underlying the cause of Parkinson’s Disease. In order to address this, Maria will utilise biochemical approaches such as single-cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq together with computational approaches on post-mortem human brain tissue and a toxicant-exposure rodent model of Parkinson’s. Prior to joining Imperial, Maria graduated with an integrated Master’s degree in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds. During her undergraduate degree, Maria developed an interest in neuropharmacology and subsequently undertook her final year project in a neuroscience lab researching dopaminergic influences on neurogenic niches of the spinal cord. In 2017/2018, Maria completed a year in industry, in which she completed two internships. She was based at the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, where Maria was overseeing a study investigating the effects of genetic variance on aspects of nicotine dependence. She also completed an internship at the National Physical Laboratory, exploring the drug delivery efficacy of novel virus-like particles. When not in the lab, I can typically be found on the sofa with my nose in a book.