

Neuronal Degeneration Group
Amayra Hernández-Vega (Ramon y Cajal Researcher)
Research
Our long-term goal is to understand neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Tau’s contribution to it. We aim with this knowledge to find the best therapeutic strategies to prevent this devastating disease. To this end, my team combines in vitro reconstitution and neurons in culture.
Emerging evidence highlights the urgent need for early intervention in AD, and a major global effort is underway to validate the best biomarkers to detect the disease before symptoms appear. Yet, to truly succeed in the race against dementia, we must also gain a deeper understanding of how the disease progresses at the cellular and subcellular levels.
Neurons are highly specialized cells with long, thin projections that depend on continuous intracellular transport. This unique morphology makes them particularly vulnerable to traffic disruptions and other perturbations affecting the delivery of essential cargo to synapses.
Our research focuses on deciphering and targeting early structural and dynamic changes in these neuronal processes—changes that may represent some of the earliest events in Alzheimer’s disease.
Collaborators
Grants
2026 – 2030
Pasqual Maragall Researchers Programme (PMRP 2024)
2024-1366 MAPtoAD
2026 – 2028
Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2024 (PID2024-160613OA-I00)
TauiST
2024 ⎯ 2026
Ayudas para Incentivar la Consolidación Investigadora (Grants to Encourage Research Consolidation), CNS2023-145393
2024 ⎯ 2026
Ayudas para Incentivar la Consolidación Investigadora (Grants to Encourage Research Consolidation), CNS2023-145393
2024 ⎯ 2025
2023 ⎯ 2027
BIST Ignite seed stage
Ramón y Cajal contract, RYC2021‐031779‐I
Selected Publications
-
Hernández-Vega, A., Braun, M., Scharrel, L., Jahnel, M., Wegmann, S., Hyman, B.T., Alberti, S., Diez, S., and Hyman, A.A. Local Nucleation of Microtubule Bundles through Tubulin Concentration into Condensed Tau Phase. Cell Reports. 2017 September;20(10):2304-2312. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.08.042.
-
Siahaan, V., Krattenmacher, J., Hyman, A.A., Diez, S., Hernández-Vega, A., † Lansky, Z., † and Braun, M†. Kinetically distinct phases of Tau on microtubules regulate kinesin motors and severing enzymes. † Correspondence. Nature Cell Biology 21, 1086-1092. 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41556-019-0374-6
-
Wegmann, S., Eftekharzadeh, B., Tepper, K., Zoltowska, K.M., Bennett, R.E., Dujardin, S., Laskowski, P.R., MacKenzie, D., Kamath, T., Commins, C., Vanderburg, C., Roe AD, Fan Z, Molliex, A.M., Hernández-Vega, A., Muller D, Hyman, A.A., Mandelkow, E., Taylor, J.P., Hyman, B.T. Tau protein liquid-liquid phase separation can initiate Tau aggregation. The EMBO journal, e98049. 2018. DOI: 10.15252/embj.201798049










