Tamara Tomanic

Tamara is a PhD candidate at Dementia Research Centre. Her research topic focuses on functional dynamics of tropomyosin isoforms and actin at the post-synapse. Her interest in Neuroscience started early during her undergraduate studies which led her to research training at the Institute für Neuroanatomie, RWTH University, Aachen, Germany in 2013. This research was incorporated into her MSc thesis: “The influence of pro-inflammatory factors on the expression of ENTPD2 in mouse oligodendrocytes”. She graduated with a Master’s degree from the Department of Molecular Biology and Physiology, University of Belgrade, Serbia in 2015. That same year she has been awarded Marie-Skłodowska Curie fellowship within Neptune ITN to gain multidisciplinary experience in evo-devo and neurobiology of marine animals at SARS Centre, University of Bergen, Norway. What brought her to Dementia Research Centre is a keen enthusiasm towards the function and development of the brain, as well as their disruption in disease.

Forefront Group: Dementia Research Centre

Supervisors:

Prof. Thomas Fath (primary), Dr. Arne Ittner (co-supervisor)

Expertise:

  • Cytoskeleton
  • Synapse
  • Neuron development

Affiliate Organisations:

Macquarie University

Neurodegeneration of interest:

Alzheimer’s disease, Memory disorders, Cognitive disorders

Specific Skills:

  • Molecular Biology and Physiology
  • Biophysics
  • Neuroscience
  • Advanced Microscopy Techniques
  • Immunofluorescence
  • Synaptosome Preparation
  • Cloning
  • MatLab and Python Programming

Project - Deciphering the function of neuronal cell architecture and nerve cell connections in the brain and its disruption in Alzheimer's Disease pathology (2017-2021)

Disease area:

Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease

Research Project Description

  • Analysing the changes in neuronal morphology in the overexpression or absence of tropomyosin (Tpm) isoforms Tpm3.1 and Tpm4.2
  • Resolving functional characteristics of Tpm3.1 and Tpm4.2 and their impact on actin dynamics at the post-synaptic compartment
  • Determining specific interaction partners of Tpm4.2 at the post-synaptic compartment