Biography

For his doctorate, Lukas Busch is researching the role of formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) in neurodegenerative diseases. This receptor family plays an important role in the human body’s immune response to various pathogens. An important but still little researched field is the interaction of FPRs with neuropathological peptides such as amyloid beta, which plays a key role in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Lukas Busch wants to better understand the direct effects of such peptides on FPR-mediated signal transduction, such as the development of pathological effects like oxidative stress and FPR-mediated chemotaxis. As a member of the NeurodegX research group, he is working on the pharmacological characterization of various substances from fungi and cyanobacteria that could contribute to the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in the future as neuroprotective substances.