Siddhartha Mondragon-Rodriguez, Ph.D.

McGill University

Contact Information

Siddhartha Mondragon-Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Montreal, Canada

Professional Information

Postdoctoral fellow
McGill University

Education

Posdoctoral Associate (Neurosciences). 2012- present. Institut universitaire en santé mentale Douglas. Université McGill. Faculte de Medecine. Montreal, Qc, Canada. Topic of Research: Optogenetic modulation of cholinergic neurons and its role in network communication; implication for Alzheimer’s disease. Supervisor: Profr. Sylvain Williams, PhD. Posdoctoral Associate (Neurosciences). 2009-2012. Universite de Montreal, Faculte de Medecine, Departament de physiologie., Montreal, Qc, Canada. Topic of Research: Synaptic Plasticity and Alzheimer’s disease. Supervisor: Prof. Jannic Boehm, PhD. Research Invited, 2006-2007. Case Western Reserve University (Case). Department of Pathology, School of Medicine. Cleveland, Ohio U.S.A.. Topic of Research: Abnormal processing of tau protein during Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's, Pick Disease, Down's syndrome, and frontotemporal dementia. Supervisor: Profs. Mark A. Smith, Ph.D., and George Perry, Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy in Sciences and Cell Biology, 2005-2009. Center of Research and Advanced Studies of the National Politechnical Institute (CINVESTAV).,IPN. México DF. Topic of Research: The role of phosphorylation and truncation of tau protein during the progression of the neurofibrillary pathology in Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. Supervisor: Prof. Francisco Garcia-Sierra, Ph.D. Master of Science in Molecular Biomedicine. 2002-2005. National School of Medicine from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico City (ENMyH). México DF. Topic of Research: Pathological processing of tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease. Supervisor: Profr. Francisco Garcia-Sierra, Ph.D., and Santiago Salas Ph.D.

Bio

By using human brains (Alzheimer’s cases), we found that the most important proteins known to be related to AD (tau and amyloid-beta proteins) were morphologically related through abnormal phosphorylation events, conformational changes, and cleavage of tau protein. School of Medicine, Mexico.

During the Ph.D. I found that atypical phosphorylation of tau protein was the earliest event, followed by conformational changes and cleavage in Alzheimer’s evolution. CINVESTAV, Mexico.

In my research project at Case Western Reserve University, I aimed to compare my AD findings to other tau related neurological diseases such as Pick disease, frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy. In this study I found that Pick disease was mimicking what I found during early stages of AD regarding the post-translational events of tau protein (phosphorylation events, conformational changes and cleavage).

During my first postdoctoral studies I aimed to evaluate the relationship between phosphorylated tau protein and one of the most fundamental events in the brain, synaptic plasticity, and its long-lasting forms (LTD and LTP), which have been proposed to be affected by amyloid-beta during AD. I found that tau has an important role during synaptic plasticity and that its function is regulated through phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

For my second postdoctoral appointment I am studying how acetylcholine (ACh) neurons contribute to hippocampal theta activity and to memory formation. Here I am combining a new method named optogenetics to their recently developed septo-hippocampal preparation in vitro. McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.