Eleanor Coffey

Group Name: Protein Kinase Function in the Brain

Subject: Cell Biology

University: Åbo Akademi University

Lab Website: link

AboCRIS Profile: link

Areas of Expertise

Our lab investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying brain disorders, with specialized expertise in the signaling pathways regulated by the protein kinases JNK and LRRK2. We have uncovered novel insights into how these kinases influence anxiety-like behaviors and neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease. By integrating animal and cellular models with clinical proteomics, we aim to deepen our understanding of the biology behind these conditions.

We focus on Parkinson’s disease, using deep proteomic profiling of blood cells to detect pre-symptomatic changes. This includes developing new informatics to decode the “dark proteome” of cohorts like PPMI to identify early biomarkers. We also study depression cohorts to find markers predicting treatment response. Together, this work offers insight into immune cell roles in brain disorders.

Our lab combines fluorescence imaging and proteomics methods with neurobiology, biochemistry, and data science to reach our goals.

These projects are funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, the Research Council of Finland, EU ERANET, Immudocs, and Inflames. We participate in international networks in the field of neuroscience, including informatics for neuroscience.

PhosPiR: an automated phosphoproteomic pipeline in R. Briefings in Bioinformatics. 2022. DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbab510
Protein synthesis is suppressed in sporadic and familial Parkinson’s disease by LRRK2. FASEB Journal. 2020. DOI: 10.1096/fj.202001046R
JNK1 controls adult hippocampal neurogenesis and imposes cell-autonomous control of anxiety behaviour from the neurogenic niche. Molecular Psychiatry. 2018. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2016.203
Nuclear and cytosolic JNK signalling in neurons. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2014. DOI: 10.1038/nrn3729
Phosphorylation of SCG10/stathmin-2 determines multipolar stage exit and neuronal migration rate. Nature Neuroscience. 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2755