Patricia Rodriguez Rodriguez

I am a pharmacist and biochemist with a PhD in neuroscience and extensive experience in the study of molecular mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration. 

I obtained my PhD in 2013, funded by a highly competitive national fellowship in Spain. In 2014 I joined The Karolinska Institute (KI) as a postdoctoral fellow, and led a project aimed at understanding the mechanisms behind insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease (Brain, 2017).  https://www.nature.com/articles/nrneurol.2017.158

In 2018 I became an Assistant Professor at Karolinska, and was awarded a H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie global individual fellowship that allowed me to join The Rockefeller University in New York, where I started exploring the mechanisms behind the vulnerability of specific neurons to AD (Neuron, 2020,  Brain, 2024). https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/projects-details/31045243/799638/H2020

In 2021 I returned to Karolinska, where I was promoted to a permanent position in 2023. I now lead an independent research line where I use state-of-the-art cell-type specific methods to uncover the mechanisms initiating neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease vulnerable neurons.

Our research is focused on understanding how different genetic and non-genetic risk factors and disease drivers trigger the early degeneration of specific regions and neuronal subpopulations in Alzheimer's disease. To achieve this goal we apply a wide variety of cell-type specific transcriptomics and proteomics approaches in human post-mortem brain samples, mouse models and in-vitro systems.

Some of our current projects include:

• Cell-type specific analysis of human entorhinal cortex at early stages of Alzheimer’s disease

• In-vivo characterization of subcellular proteomes

• Regional and cell-type specific vulnerability to Alzheimer’s disease risk factors

• Identification and validation of novel drivers of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology

More information can be found here: Research focus and projects

• PhD and master course "Neurodegenerative dissorders I: genes, molecular mechanisms and treatment" at Karolinska Institute.  
• PhD course "The interplay between neuro-infections and Neurodegenerative diseases", part of the Doctoral Program in Neuroscience at Karolinska Institute.  (2023 and 2024).
• Course "Frontiers in Biomedicine" of the Master's programme in Biomedicine at  Karolinska Institute  (2023 and 2024).
• Teacher at "Protein Metabolism in Health and Disease", a course within the Karolinska Institutet Clinical Research School in Molecular Medicine  (2024)
• PhD course "Alzheimer's disease-clinical features and pathogenic mechanisms" at Karolinska Institute. (2023 and 2025)
• Teacher at "Protein Mechanisms of Disease", a course within the Karolinska Institutet Clinical Research School in Molecular Medicine  (2017)
• Teacher at the course "Frontiers in Translation Medicine, part of the master program in Biomedicine at Karolinska Institute (2016).