Associate Professor Yazi Ke

Associate Professor Yazi Ke, Deputy Director fo the Dementia Research Centre, Macquarie University.

Yazi is the Deputy Director of the Dementia Research Centre and a research group leader in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. Yazi obtained her PhD in Medicine from The University of Sydney in 2009. She held academic appointments as Lecturer (2013) and Senior Lecturer (2017) before moving to Macquarie University to join the Dementia Research Centre in 2018. A/Prof Ke was an ARC DECRA and NHMRC Career Development fellow. She has published over 44 papers with over 4100 citations including in leading scientific journals like Cell, Science, Nature Comms, Acta Neuropathologica and PNAS. Yazi was awarded over $4.8 million in competitive grant funding including ARC Project Grant (1x), NHMRC project/Ideas (2x) and MND Research Australia (3x).

Forefront Group:

  • Macquarie University Dementia Research Centre (DRC) Motor neuron disease Research Group Leader

Expertise:

  • Molecular biology
  • Animal models
  • Cell biology

Affiliate Organisations

Macquarie University and Sydney University

Neurodegeneration of interest:

AD, FTD, MND, stroke, seizure, ageing, TBI

Specific Skills:

  • Neuroscientist
  • Molecular biology

Projects:

1. Ke YD, van Hummel A, Au C, Ariawan AD, Delerue F, Ittner LM. MND Research Australia Betty and John Laidlaw Research Prize, Novel therapeutic strategies targeting TDP-43 in Motor Neuron Disease, 2021.

2. Ke YD, van Hummel A, Ariawan AD. NHMRC Ideas grant, Targeting pathogenic Tar-DNA-binding protein 43 to treat frontotemporal dementia and motor neuron disease, 2021-2023.

3. Lee A, Rayner S, Martin A, van Hummel A, Morsch M, Shi B, Ke YD. MND Australia Innovator Grant, Clearance of TDP-43 by PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC) dual targeting to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 2020.

4. Ittner LM, Ke YD. MND Australia Peter Stearne Familial MND Research Grant, “The role of TDP-43 pathology-associated astrocytosis in Motor Neuron Disease”, 2018-2019.

5. Ke YD, Ittner A, Tan R. The Role of LIM Domain Kinase 1 in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease. NHMRC Project Grant 2018-2020.

6. Ittner A, Ke YD. Site-specific Tau Phosphorylation to treat and understand Alzheimer’s Disease. NHMRC Project Grant 2018-2020.

7. Ittner LM, Ke YD. MND Australia Grant in Aid, “The role of TDP-43 pathology-associated astrocytosis in Motor Neuron Disease”, 2018

8. Ke YD, van Eersel J, Fath T, Gunning P. ARC Discovery Project grant DP150104321, “The role of LIM Kinase 1 in neurons”, 2015-2018

9. Ittner LM, Fath T, Ke YD. MND Australia Grant in Aid, “The role of profilin in MND”, 2015