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Frances Edwards, Ph.D.

Professor of Neurodegeneration, University College London, England

Dr. Frances Edwards is a professor of neurodegeneration, in the neuroscience, physiology & pharmacology division of biosciences of University College London (UCL)

Dr. Edwards graduated with a degree in pharmacology at the University of Sydney, Australia and received her Ph.D. while working at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany under the Nobel Prize winner, Professor Bert Sakmann. After staying on as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Sakmann’s lab, in 1990 she joined David Colquhoun’s group in pharmacology at UCL as a Wellcome European Fellow.

After returning to Australia in 1992 Dr. Frances held a Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney from 1993 until 1996.

In 1996 she joined the Department of Physiology at UCL. Until 2010 the focus of the Edwards lab was mechanisms of fast synaptic transmission and the role of dendritic spines in plasticity using electrophysiology and confocal imaging.

In 2010 the research direction largely shifted to research on Alzheimer’s disease, studying several transgenic mouse models of human mutations in the amyloid pathway or microtubule-associated protein tau.

The approaches have expanded to include a range of molecular biology and immunohistochemical techniques and genetics (in collaboration with John Hardy). Along with synaptic changes, the lab is now interested in the role of the immune system in Alzheimer and the interface between amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

Related Research:

Investigating the Serial Pathologies Related to Plasma Biomarkers in NLFTaum/h Mice: A New Mouse Model Featuring Neurofibrillary Tangles as a Result of Rising Amyloid Beta without Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau (MAPT) Mutations Frances Edwards John Hardy 2024-12-16 Influence of Plaque Vicinity on Microglial and Astrocyte Gene Expression; Role of Human Tau and TREM2 Frances Edwards John Hardy 2022-02-11 Gene Expression Throughout Development of Pathology in APPKI Mice; Effects of Human Tau and Aging Frances Edwards John Hardy 2018-08-09

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Investigating the Serial Pathologies Related to Plasma Biomarkers in NLFTaum/h Mice: A New Mouse Model Featuring Neurofibrillary Tangles as a Result of Rising Amyloid Beta without Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau (MAPT) Mutations 2024, 2025

$397,471.11
Influence of Plaque Vicinity on Microglial and Astrocyte Gene Expression; Role of Human Tau and TREM2 2021, 2023

$344,658.27
Gene Expression Throughout Development of Pathology in APPKI Mice; Effects of Human Tau and Aging 2017, 2019

$394,374

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Wood, J. I., Dulewicz, M., Szadziewska, A., Weiner, S., Ge, J., Stringer, K., Desai, S., Fenson, L., Piotrowska, D., Brinkmalm, G., Koutarapu, S., Hajar, H. B., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Cummings, D. M., Savas, J. N., Edwards, F. A., & Hanrieder, J. Isotope-encoded spatial biology identifies plaque-age-dependent maturation and synaptic loss in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, Nature Communications, September 1, 2025, Read More

Wood, J. I., Wong, E., Joghee, R., Balbaa, A., Vitanova, K. S., Stringer, K. M., Vanshoiack, A., Phelan, S. J., Launchbury, F., Desai, S., Tripathi, T., Hanrieder, J., Cummings, D. M., Hardy, J., & Edwards, F. A. Plaque contact and unimpaired Trem2 is required for the microglial response to amyloid pathology, Cell Reports, November 22, 2022, Read More

Edwards, F. E. A unifying hypothesis for Alzheimer’s disease: from plaques to neurodegeneration, Trends in Neurosciences, May 1, 2019, Read More

Benitez, D. P., Jiang, S., Wood, J., Wang, R., Hall, C. M., Peerboom, C., Wong, N., Stringer, K. M., Vitanova, K. S., Smith, V. C., Joshi, D., Saito, T., Saido, T. C., Hardy, J., Hanrieder, J., De Strooper, B., Salih, D. A., Tripathi, T., Edwards, F. A., & Cummings, D. M. Knock-in models related to Alzheimer’s disease: synaptic transmission, plaques and the role of microglia, Molecular Neurodegeneration, July 15, 2021, Read More

Michno, W., Stringer, K. M., Enzlein, T., Passarelli, M. K., Escrig, S., Vitanova, K., Wood, J., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Meibom, A., Hopf, C., Edwards, F. A., & Hanrieder, J. Following spatial Aβ aggregation dynamics in evolving Alzheimer’s disease pathology by imaging stable isotope labeling kinetics, Science Advances, June 16, 2021, Read More

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