Reinis's 5-year PhD project is approaching its final when he will defend his PhD in dissertation on 25.1.2019. The title of the thesis is "Underlying Mechanisms of Prolyl Oligopeptidase Inhibition, Deletion, and Restoration on the alpha-Synuclein Aggregation Process", and in his work Reinis clarified the impact of PREP on alpha-synuclein aggregation - one of the key players in cellular death on Parkinson's disease - and effect of PREP inhibitors on this. It turned out that PREP increases alpha-synuclein toxicity and PREP inhibitors can even stop the toxic aggregation process. Moreover, in the thesis project, Reinis found several novel mechanisms behind the effects of PREP inhibitors that can be expanded to other diseases as well.
More details can be found here: https://helsinginyliopisto.etapahtuma.fi/fi-fi/Kalenteri/Suomi?id=54575