Francisco Garcia-Sierra, PhD

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

Department of Cell Biology; Center of Research and Advanced studies of the National Polytechnic Institute

Areas of Interest: 

Alzheimer basic research, cell and molecular biology of neurodegenerative diseases, confocal microscopy, neuropathology

Biography & Research: 

Francisco Garcia-Sierra obtained his MSc in Cell Biology and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Center of Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City. He joined the group of Lester Skip Binder in 2000 at The Cell and Molecular Biology Department at Northwestern University in Chicago as a postdoctoral fellow. During this time he investigated and contributed to propose a model of the neuropathological progression of Alzheimer´s disease based on conformational changes and truncation of Tau protein. This work was awarded the Alzheimer´s disease medal given by the Journal of Alzheimer´s disease in 2004. He was also a contributor of several studies in Binder´s Laboratory where the proteolytically processing of tau by caspases, generating the pathological Asp421-truncated form, was discovered. Francisco is currently the head and main researcher of the Laboratory of Neurodegeneration at the Department of Cell Biology in the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City. To date, his research has been focused on the study of the Molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in Alzheimer´s disease by using autopsied human brain tissue from AD patients, paradigms of Tau polymerization in vitro, and cell models expressing normal and truncated variants of Tau protein. Francisco has set long-term scientific collaborations with several well-recognized researchers in the field of Alzheimer´s disease such as George Perry and Jesús Avila.