Georgia Minakaki, MSc, PhD (SIG Oral Presenter)
Northwestern University
Dr. Georgia Minakaki, a post-doctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Dimitri Krainc, Department of Neurology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. Georgia Minakaki studied genes and cellular pathways that may influence the biology of Parkinson’s disease risk. To this end, she performed a genome-wide CRISPR interference screen to identify genes modulating the activity of the lysosome enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase), encoded by GBA1. The study revealed that COMMD genes and the functionally related COMMD/CCDC22/CCDC93 (CCC) and Commander complexes modulate GCase activity and general lysosomal function. Dr. Minakaki completed her PhD with Dr. Jochen Klucken, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. She has a master’s in molecular medicine, University of Athens, and bachelor’s in biology, University of Crete, Greece.