Outeiro, Tiago Fleming, Prof. Dr.

Director of the Department of Experimental Neurodegeneration


  • 11/2010 –present: Full Professor of Aggregopathies, Director of the Department of Neurodegeneration and Restaurative Research, University Medizin Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany
  • 12/07 – present Auxiliar Professor, Instituto de Fisiologia, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
  • 5/07 – 7/08 Visiting Scientist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
  • 5/07 – 1/11 Principal Investigator and Group Leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 6/04-5/07 Postdoctoral Research Fellow; advisor Dr. Brad Hyman, MGH – Harvard University, USA
  • 6/04-9/04 Consultant and Research Scientist, FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Cambridge, USA: Ph.D. work was transferred to the start up company FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
  • 4/99 – 7/04 Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, MIT, Cambridge, USA University of Chicago (UC), Chicago, USA
  • 9/94-9/98 B.S. in Biochemistry Faculty of Sciences – University of Porto, Porto, Portugal




Major Research Interests

Our research interests are focused on the understanding of the molecular mechanisms which lead to neurodegeneration in diseases such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, or Alzheimer's disease. These diseases are intimately associated with protein misfolding and aggregation in specific regions of the brain.
Because the molecular pathways involved in protein homeostasis are highly conserved, we employ a wide variety of model organisms, from the simple but powerful budding yeast to mammalian cell culture and mice, to study the origin of the problems.
We are also developing novel in vivo imaging approaches based on multi-photon microscopy to observe protein misfolding and aggregation in the living brain.
Our ultimate goals are to develop novel therapeutic approaches for these and other related disorders. We are working closely together with clinicians in order to accelerate drug discovery efforts, translating basic research into clinical applications that will improve the lives of patients.


Homepage Department/Research Group

http://www.neurodegeneration.uni-goettingen.de/



Selected Recent Publications

  • Marques S, Batalha VL, Lopes LV, Outeiro TF (2011) Modulating Alzheimer's disease through caffeine: a putative link to epigenetics. J Alzheimers Dis. Jan 1;24:161-71. PubMed PMID: 21427489.
  • Herrera F, Tenreiro S, Miller-Fleming L, Outeiro TF (2011) Visualization of cell-to-cell transmission of mutant huntingtin oligomers. PLoS Curr. Feb 11;3:RRN1210. PubMed PMID: 21331289; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3037516.
  • Hansen C, Angot E, Bergstr√∂m AL, Steiner JA, Pieri L, Paul G, Outeiro TF, Melki R, Kallunki P, Fog K, Li JY, Brundin P. (2011) Œ±-Synuclein propagates from mouse brain to grafted dopaminergic neurons and seeds aggregation in cultured human cells. J Clin Invest. 2011 Feb 1;121(2):715-25. doi: 10.1172/JCI43366. Epub 2011 Jan 18. PubMed PMID: 21245577; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3026723.
  • Outeiro TF, Kontopoulos E, Altmann SM, Kufareva I, Strathearn KE, Amore AM, Volk CB, Maxwell MM, Rochet JC, McLean PJ, Young AB, Abagyan R, Feany MB, Hyman BT, Kazantsev AG (2007) Sirtuin 2 inhibitors rescue alpha-synuclein-mediated toxicity in models of Parkinson's disease. Science. 2007 Jul 27;317(5837):516-9. Epub 2007 Jun 21. PubMed PMID: 17588900.
  • Outeiro TF, Kontopoulos E, Altmann SM, Kufareva I, Strathearn KE, Amore AM, Volk CB, Maxwell MM, Rochet JC, McLean PJ, Young AB, Abagyan R, Feany MB, Hyman BT, Kazantsev AG (2007) Sirtuin 2 inhibitors rescue alpha-synuclein-mediated toxicity in models of Parkinson's disease. Science. 2007 Jul 27;317(5837):516-9. Epub 2007 Jun 21. PubMed PMID: 17588900.
  • Outeiro TF, Klucken J, Strathearn KE, Liu F, Nguyen P, Rochet JC, Hyman BT, McLean PJ (2007) Small heat shock proteins protect against alpha-synuclein-induced toxicity and aggregation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2006 Dec 22;351(3):631-8. Epub 2006 Oct 26. PubMed PMID: 17081499; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1934426.
  • Outeiro TF, Lindquist S (2007) Yeast cells provide insight into alpha-synuclein biology and pathobiology. Science. 2003 Dec 5;302(5651):1772-5. PubMed PMID: 14657500; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1780172.