Insights into Human Neurodegeneration: Lessons Learnt from Drosophila

Dr. Mousumi Mutsuddi is a faculty in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Banaras Hindu University. She was earlier a scientist at Broad Institute, MIT. She has been visiting scientist at NIH, Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research, MIT, and University of Valencia etc. She has close to three decades of research experience and has contributed immensely to the understanding of molecular basis of neurodegenerative disease, congenital ocular disorders and apoptosis. Her research group has identified novel RNA binding proteins that depletes pathogenic non-coding SCA8 transcripts as well as identified a novel RNA helicase, Maheshvara whose human orthologue is vital for CNS development. Her research findings have been published in reputed journals like Current Biology, American Journal of Human Genetics, and Human Mutation etc. She has delivered invited lectures in several international meetings and her research contributions have won her recognitions andawards from apical organizations of India like Department of Biotechnology and Indian National Science Academy.  Dr. Ashim Mukherjee is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Banaras Hindu University, India. He has almost thirty years of research experience in the field of Drosophila Genetics and Molecular Biology. He has worked at premier research institutes like Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He has identified several novel interacting partners involved in different aspects of Notch signaling. His research findings have been published in renowned journals like Nature Cell Biology, Genome Research, Current Biology, Genetics, and Development etc. Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India has funded research work in his laboratory. Dr. Mukherjee is member of the Drosophila Board of India, life member of Indian Society of Cell Biology and the Indian Society of Developmental Biology. He is also member in the editorial board of several journals.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Drosophila as a model organism.- Chapter 2. Methods for creating fly models in order to understand molecular mechanism of neurological diseases.- Chapter 3. Neurodegeneration: Lessons learnt from forward genetic screens in Drosophila.- Chapter 4. Drosophila neural stem cells, a primer for understanding mammalian neurobiology.- Chapter 5. Understanding motor disorders using flies.- Chapter 6. Metabolic alterations amalgamated with neurodegenerative diseases.- Chapter 7. Notch signalling in neurodegenerative disease.- Chapter 8. Drosophila model of neurofibrillar tangles.- Chapter 9. Unraveling Alzheimer's disease using Drosophila.- Chapter 10. Modelling Human Parkinson's disease in fly.- Chapter 11. Post-translational modifications: A mystery to unravel Huntington’s disease.- Chapter 12.  Understanding the pathogenicity of non-coding RNA expansion associated neurodegenerative disorders.- Chapter 13. Expanding roles of RNA binding proteins in neurodegeneration.- Chapter 14. Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Disease in Drosophila.- Chapter 15. Drosophila as a model system for the identification of pharmacological therapies in neurodegenerative diseases.