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

  • Chopra A, Outeiro TF. Aggregation and beyond: alpha-synuclein-based biomarkers in synucleinopathies. Brain. 2023 Aug 1:awad260. doi: 10.1093/brain/awad260. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37526295.
  • Outeiro TF, Vieira TCRG. AI and protein structure and function in neurological disease: relevance to disease management. Nat Rev Neurol. 2023 Aug;19(8):453-454. doi: 10.1038/s41582-023-00840-z. PMID: 37394622.
  • Brás IC, Khani MH, Vasili E, Möbius W, Riedel D, Parfentev I, Gerhardt E, Fahlbusch C, Urlaub H, Zweckstetter M, Gollisch T, Outeiro TF. Molecular Mechanisms Mediating the Transfer of Disease-Associated Proteins and Effects on Neuronal Activity. J Parkinsons Dis. 2022;12(8):2397-2422. doi: 10.3233/JPD-223516. PMID: 36278361.
  • Brás IC, Khani MH, Riedel D, Parfentev I, Gerhardt E, van Riesen C, Urlaub H, Gollisch T, Outeiro TF. Ectosomes and exosomes modulate neuronal spontaneous activity. J Proteomics. 2022 Oct 30;269:104721. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2022.104721. Epub 2022 Sep 8. PMID: 36089191.
  • Flores-León M, Lázaro DF, Shvachiy L, Krisko A, Outeiro TF. In silico analysis of the aggregation propensity of the SARS-CoV-2 proteome: Insight into possible cellular pathologies. Biochim Biophys Acta Proteins Proteom. 2021 Oct;1869(10):140693. doi: 10.1016/j.bbapap.2021.140693. Epub 2021 Jul 5. PMID: 34237472; PMCID: PMC8256665.
  • Vicente Miranda H, Szego ÉM, Oliveira LMA, Breda C, Darendelioglu E, de Oliveira RM, Ferreira DG, Gomes MA, Rott R, Oliveira M, Munari F, Enguita FJ, Simões T, Rodrigues EF, Heinrich M, Martins IC, Zamolo I, Riess O, Cordeiro C, Ponces-Freire A, Lashuel HA, Santos NC, Lopes LV, Xiang W, Jovin TM, Penque D, Engelender S, Zweckstetter M, Klucken J, Giorgini F, Quintas A, Outeiro TF. Glycation potentiates α-synuclein-associated neurodegeneration in synucleinopathies. Brain. 2017 May 1;140(5):1399-1419. doi: 10.1093/brain/awx056. Erratum in: Brain. 2021 Jul 28;144(6):e58. PMID: 28398476.
  • Brás IC, Dominguez-Meijide A, Gerhardt E, Koss D, Lázaro DF, Santos PI, Vasili E, Xylaki M, Outeiro TF. Synucleinopathies: Where we are and where we need to go. J Neurochem. 2020 May;153(4):433-454. doi: 10.1111/jnc.14965. Epub 2020 Feb 19. PMID: 31957016.
  • Ferreira DG, Temido-Ferreira M, Vicente Miranda H, Batalha VL, Coelho JE, Szegö ÉM, Marques-Morgado I, Vaz SH, Rhee JS, Schmitz M, Zerr I, Lopes LV, Outeiro TF. α-synuclein interacts with PrPC to induce cognitive impairment through mGluR5 and NMDAR2B. Nat Neurosci. 2017 Nov;20(11):1569-1579. doi: 10.1038/nn.4648. Epub 2017 Sep 25. PMID: 28945221.
  • de Oliveira RM, Vicente Miranda H, Francelle L, Pinho R, Szegö ÉM, Martinho R, Munari F, Lázaro DF, Moniot S, Guerreiro P, Fonseca-Ornelas L, Marijanovic Z, Antas P, Gerhardt E, Enguita FJ, Fauvet B, Penque D, Pais TF, Tong Q, Becker S, Kügler S, Lashuel HA, Steegborn C, Zweckstetter M, Outeiro TF. The mechanism of sirtuin 2-mediated exacerbation of alpha-synuclein toxicity in models of Parkinson disease. PLoS Biol. 2017 Mar 3;15(3):e2000374. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000374.
  • Lázaro DF, Rodrigues EF, Langohr R, Shahpasandzadeh H, Ribeiro T, Guerreiro P, Gerhardt E, Kröhnert K, Klucken J, Pereira MD, Popova B, Kruse N, Mollenhauer B, Rizzoli SO, Braus GH, Danzer KM, Outeiro TF. Systematic comparison of the effects of alpha-synuclein mutations on its oligomerization and aggregation. PLoS Genet. 2014 Nov 13;10(11):e1004741. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004741. PMID: 25393002; PMCID: PMC4230739.