Paramita Chakrabarty, PhD

Dr. Paramita Chakrabarty received her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) on functional characterization of calcium binding proteins in intestinal parasites. Following this, she shifted gears to train in neuroscience as she became intrigued by how the brain function declines during aging, especially investigating what triggers age-related sporadic neurodegenerative diseases. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Washington and the Mayo Clinic (Jacksonville). She rose through the ranks at the University of Florida and established her independent lab where her broad focus is investigating the role of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Chakrabarty’s passion, aside from her research, is in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. She is involved in mentoring pre-doctoral trainees under a T32 training program in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and she also participates in shared governance at the College and University level. When she is not at the lab, she likes to take walks, read books and listen to an eclectic mix of music that spans different cultures.

Finding effective therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major unmet medical need. Given the genetic association between innate immunity and AD, there is a strong scientific rationale for pursuing research on characterizing therapies targeting immune function as disease modifying therapy in AD and related dementias. We believe that the innate immune system can be potentially harnessed to produce a beneficial disease modifying effect depending on the time and context of immune manipulation. Using various mouse models of AD and related dementias, my laboratory’s work focuses not only on discovering immune pathways linked to these diseases but also testing the efficacy of immune-based therapeutics. The overarching idea for my future research is to harness the effectiveness of these immunobiotherapies, alone or in combination with other existing therapies, for not only Alzheimer’s disease but further extending these ideas to target tauopathies and synucleinopathies.