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Francisca BRONFMAN Ph.D. Associate Scientist, FONDAP in Biomedicine. Assistant Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Dr. Bronfman obtained her degree in Biological Sciences from the Catholic University of Chile in1993. She was awarded an Associate Fellowship research from the Dirección de Investigación y Post from the P. Universidad Católica (1994) working in the laboratory of Dr. Nibaldo Inestrosa in topics related to the regulations of amyloid precursor protein (APP). In 1995 she begun her doctoral studies at the Catholic University of Chile working in the regulation of amyloid formation by extra cellular matrix proteins, moving later to Belgium to finish her doctoral studies in the Laboratory of Dr. Fred Van Leuven. Her area of research was related to Amyloidogenesis and the cholinergic system in Alzheimer’s disease, comparing in vitro analysis to transgenic mice models. She performed her posdoctoral studies at the Weizman Intitute of Science (Sept 2000 – Jan 2003), Israel working in the laboratory of Dr. Mike Fainzilber on cellular mechanism of traffic and signaling of neurotrophic factors. Dr. Francisaca Bronfman performed short-term research visits at the Max Plank Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany (Dr. Tom Jovin’s Lab) and at the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology of the Catholic University of Leuven (Dr Bart De Strooper and Dr. Wim Annaert’s lab).

RESEARCH: During her postdoctoral research Francisca studied the mechanism of internalization and trafficking of the p75 neurotrophin receptor. She described for the first time the route and mechanism of internalization of the p75 neurotrophin receptor, in addition, she showed that p75 in endosomes is associated with intracellular interactors in a ligand-dependent fashion. These studies are the bases or her working hypothesis that postulates that p75 poses intracellular trafficking capacities that dominate the cellular responses of neurotrophic factors during the process of differentiation, regeneration, and survival and/or cell death. Thus the endocytic route in neurons could be part of a mechanism to signal from one region to other (e.i., from synaptic terminals to cell bodies).

ACADEMIC POSITIONS: Assistant professor Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Cellular Neurobiology group.

Laminin blocks the assembly of wild-type Ab and Dutch variant peptide into Alzheimer’s fibrils. Amyloid 5, 16-23, 1998.

Bronfman FC, Moechars D and Van Leuven F. Acetylcholinesterase-positive fiber deafferentation and cell shrinkage in the septohippocampal pathway of aged amyloid precursor protein London mutant transgenic mice. Neurobiol. Dis., 7 152-168 2000.

Tesseur I, Van Dorpe J, Bruynseels K, Bronfman F, Sciot R, Van Lommel and Van Leuven F. Prominent axonopathy and disruption of axonal transport in transgenic mice expressing human Apolipoprotein E4 in neurons of brain and spinal cord. Am. J. Pathol. 157, 1495-1510 2000.

Tcherpakov, M. Bronfman FC, Conticello SG, Vaskovsky A, Levy Z, Niimbe M, Yoshikawa WA K, Arenas E, Fainzilber M. The p75 neurotrophin receptor interacts with multiple MAGE proteins. J. Biol. Chen. 277 49101-49104. 2002.

BRONFMAN FC, TCHERPAKOV M, JOVIN T, FAINZILBER M. Ligand-induced internalization of the p75 neurotrophin receptor: a slow route to the signaling endosome. J. Neurosci. 23(8) 3209-3220 2003.