Our laboratory is interested in understanding the link between immunity and neurodegenerative disease. Neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are marked by an unusually wide genetic and clinical heterogeneity. Chronic  (neuro) inflammation has been singled out as a rare hallmark common to all ALS cases. It triggers neuronal damage and death by enhancing glutamate toxicity, protein aggregation and/or oxidative stress. Nevertheless, various anti-inflammatory approaches have consistently failed to stop or slow down disease progression. For this reason, it is imperative to redefine the role of the immune system in neurodegeneration. In our laboratory we focus the role of the innate immune system in active maintenance of the homeostasis in the central nervous system.

 

 Ongoing collaborations:

Jasna Kriz (CERVO Brain Research Centre, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada)

Emanuele Buratti (ICGEB, Trieste, Italy)

Miranda Mladinić Pejatović and Jelena Ban (Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Croatia)

Jonathan D. Ashwell (National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA)

Ervina Bilić (Zagreb ENCALS Center, Clinical hospital center Zagreb, Croatia)

 

Contact information:

Associate professor Ivana Munitić, principal investigator                  

Laboratory for Molecular Immunology                                                                      

Department of Biotechnology

University of Rijeka

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Address:

Lab: O-236

Office: O-220

R. Matejčić 2

51000 Rijeka

CROATIA

Phone: +385 51 584 579

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5171-9950

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.hr/citations?user=dJOLzf0AAAAJ&hl=en