Research interest
Zé is interested in exploring the interplay between genome surveillance and repair mechanisms in neurons, and how can this information be used to design new therapeutics. DNA suffers constant aggression from several sources, including reactive oxygen species, toxic xenobiotics, radiation, alkylating agents and enzymatic deamination. These chemicals result as by-products from processes essential for human life and are usually maintained within regular physiological levels. Imbalances can lead to potentially deleterious DNA strand breaks and mutations that probably participate in the etiopathology of many neurologic disorders as well as ageing.
Understanding this network of interactions is crucial to establish more accurately the etiology of dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Huntington's disease, thereby providing a more comprehensive insight that might be useful to improve current treatments or design new therapeutic strategies.
In the Balmus Lab, Zé seeks to implement and apply molecular biology tools (SMASH-Tag, inducible transdifferentiation) and DNA editing techniques (CRISPR), to create unique tools that can be used specifically in mature neurons.
