Submitted by lac59 on Tue, 01/07/2025 - 12:28
Clinical Neurosciences PhD student Pranathi Prasad has won a CSAR student award for applied research. The the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research (CSAR) PhD Student Awards of £1,000 each, are intended to recognise outstanding research with real world application and to assist students to pursue their research or careers.
The award was presented on Monday 30 June at St John’s College by Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
Life as a neuroscience student - Q&A with Pranathi Prasad
Find out more about Pranathi and her work at the Pluchino lab: www.pluchinolab.org
What interested you in studying a neuroscience PhD at Cambridge?
During my undergraduate studies in biochemistry, I had the chance to conduct research internships in immunology, neurobiology and eventually, neuro-immunology. These experiences made me highly interested in how the immune system interacts with the brain, and I wanted to explore it further through a neuroscience PhD. The breadth of neuroscience research at Cambridge, its significant historical contributions to the field of neuro-immune interactions, and its collegiate student life are what brought me to Cambridge.
What is your current research project?
My research looks into one of the most dramatic instances in which the immune system interacts with the brain: during autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS is initiated by self-reactive immune cells invading the brain, leading to cell death and inflammation. However, MS eventually evolves into a progressive form of disease (Progressive MS), in which peripheral immune cells are no longer able to enter the brain, yet inflammation, neurodegeneration and disability persist. My work within the Pluchino Lab seeks to understand the key drivers of disease in Progressive MS, for which there is currently a lack of treatment options.
What do you hope to discover during your time here?
My PhD research has uncovered a novel potential driver of inflammation in Progressive MS: fragmented RNA in patient-derived cells. These fragments mimic infection signals, triggering inflammation that spreads to healthy cells. Using gene-targeting technology, I blocked the sensing of these RNA fragments, effectively halting inflammation and its spread within cells in a dish. This discovery reveals a novel, potentially critical source of inflammation in Progressive MS and identifies a new therapeutic target for further investigation.
Have there been any challenges in your current research you’ve had to overcome?
The major challenges I’ve encountered during my PhD are likely the same faced by most researchers. While negative results are an integral part of all research, it’s sometimes difficult to stay motivated when experiments aren’t turning out the way I would like. It has really been my life outside of work - my friendships, hobbies, and the various activities one can take part in at Cambridge - that has helped me stay optimistic, resilient and dedicated to my research project.
Your research area is age-related neurodegeneration – what inspired you to support this type of research? How do you hope your research may help patients in future?
While we have come a long way in our understanding of age-related neurodegenerative disorders like Progressive MS, there is still so much more to do in order to make therapeutic options available for those who need them. I hope that my findings will be part of the many such research projects needed to address this unmet need.
What excites you about the future of neuroscience?
I think that neuroscience research has come to a point where the same disease mechanisms implicated in conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are also being implicated in Progressive MS and other neurological conditions. While the initial triggers for these disorders vary, the way the diseases progress and impact the brain - particularly in terms of the brain’s response to inflammation, may hold some commonalities. I am excited to see where these discoveries will lead, since research into one neurological disorder can have important implications for what was previously thought to be a completely separate disease area.
What has it been like working with your supervisors? Was it as you expected before your PhD or different?
Working with my primary supervisor (Prof. Stefano Pluchino) and my secondary supervisor (Prof. Gabriel Balmus) has been extremely rewarding in ways I had not anticipated. While the guidance I received from my supervisors was essential, they both had a relatively hands-off approach, which I had not expected. This gave me the freedom to choose which research questions I wanted to tackle first and to further investigate the findings that I felt were most pressing. I think this really helped me develop my judgement as a scientist and researcher.
What most interested you in applying for the CSAR PhD Student Awards
The main reason I applied for the CSAR PhD Student Awards was encouragement from my lab. Two previous members of the Pluchino lab, Dr Luca Peruzzotti-Jametti and former PhD student Dr Rosana-Bristena Ionescu, had won the award in 2018 and 2023, respectively. It was their experiences and support that led me to apply, which I am very thankful for.
