Doctoral Candidate Position 1 - German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
The immune signaling of extracellular α-synuclein oligomers
Ivona Sukunda earned her BSc degree in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the University of Belgrade, Serbia in 2022. She pursued her MSc studies through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree NEURASMUS program, completing Medical Neurosciences at Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin and Neuroscience at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2022-2024). Her master thesis investigated the neural stem cell pool in postmortem subventricular zone tissue of Parkinson's disease patients.
In September 2025, she began her doctoral studies at the Milovanovic Research Group at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Disorders (DZNE), where she previously conducted research internships examining alpha-synuclein aggregation and microglial responses. Her PhD research focuses on characterizing the effects of lipid metabolism on phase separation of alpha-synuclein.
Prior to her PhD, she completed a research traineeship at Harvard Medical School's Dettmer Lab (2025), investigating the role of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein in synaptic transmission and neurodegeneration.
Description of project
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain. Increasing evidence points to mitochondrial dysfunction as a key factor in PD pathology, with damaged mitochondria contributing to immune activation and neuroinflammation. The overarching goal of this project is to identify the receptors and immune signaling pathways of different extracellular α-synuclein oligomers and inclusions.
Using crosslinking mass spectrometry with non-canonical amino acids as crosslinkers, the candidate will identify the immune receptors that recognize extracellular α-synuclein oligomers and inclusions by microglia and peripheral monocyte-derived macrophages. This will be the first interaction map at the angstrom-resolution. Receptors and pathways will be confirmed using genetic approaches. Moreover, the inflammatory responses and their potential modulation by anti-inflammatory bioactive molecules, including the mitochondria-targeting compounds of ST, will be tested using state of the art immunological approaches; the morphology changes upon inflammatory insult will be characterized using our cutting-edge microscopes.