Dr Ashling Giblin
Dr Ashling Giblin is a Postdoctoral Training Fellow in the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Her research interests lie in understanding the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases from a cell biology and structural biology perspective.
Ashling received a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from the University of Galway, Ireland, completing a semester at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She completed her PhD in the labs of Professor Adrian Isaacs and Professor Dame Linda Partridge, at the UK Dementia Research Institute and the Institute of Healthy Aging, UCL. Her PhD was supported by Alzheimer’s Research UK and focussed on frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common form of early-onset dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common adult-onset motor neuron disease. She used fruit fly models of FTD and ALS to genetically screen for modifiers of disease, which she then validated in cells and postmortem brains from patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and ALS. Her PhD identified neuronal polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) as a promising target to modify the disease course of FTLD and ALS.
In 2024 Ashling joined the lab of Dr Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, focussing on the protein TDP-43, which forms toxic aggregates in the brains of almost all patients with ALS and 50% of patients with FTLD. The Ryskeldi-Falcon lab has recently shown that specific amyloid structures of TDP-43 from patient brains define distinct neurodegenerative diseases. Ashling is developing and validating disease-relevant human neuronal models and mouse models that replicate the specific amyloid structures of TDP-43 found in patient brains, using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) techniques. This work will enable the development of much needed diagnostics and therapeutics for TDP-43 proteinopathies.
Ashling sings in the Clare Hall Choir, enjoys creating art, cold swimming and hiking.
Select publications
- Giblin, A.*, Cammack, A.J.*, Blomberg, N., Anoar, S., Mikheenko, A., Carcolé, M., Atilano, M.L., Hull, A., Shen, D., Wei, X., Coneys, R., Zhou, L., Mohammed, Y., Olivier-Jimenez, D., Wang, L.Y., Kinghorn, K.J., Niccoli, T., Coyne, A.N., van der Kant, R., Lashley, T., Giera, M., Partridge, L., Isaacs, A.M. (2025). A protective lipid homeostasis pathway in C9 ALS/FTD neurons. Nature Neuroscience, 28, 737–747. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01889-3
- Hölbling, B.V.*, Gupta, Y.*, Marchi, P.M.*, Atilano, M.L., Flower, M., Ureña, E., Goulden, R.A., Dobbs, H.K., Katona, E., Mikheenko, A., Giblin, A., Awan, A.R., Fisher-Ward, C.L., O´Brien, N., Vaizoglu, D., Kempthorne, L., Wilson, K.M., Gittings, L.M., Carcolé, M., Ruepp, M.D., Mizielinska, S., Partridge, L., Fratta, P, Tabrizi, S.J., Selvaraj, B.T., Chandran, S., Armstrong, E., Whiting, P., Isaacs, A.M. (2025). A multimodal screening platform for endogenous dipeptide repeat proteins in C9orf72 patient iPSC-neurons. Cell Reports, 44(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115695
- Feringa, F.M.*, Koppes-den Hertog, S.J.*, Wang, L., Derks, R.J.E., Kruijff, I., Erlebach, L., Heijneman, J., Miramontes, R., Pömpner, N., Blomberg, N., Olivier-Jimenez, D., Johansen, L.E., Cammack, A.J., Giblin, A., Toomey, C.E., Rose, I.V.L., Yuan, H., Ward, M.E., Isaacs, A.M., Kampmann, M., Kronenberg-Versteeg, D., Lashley, T., Thompson, L.M., Ori, A., Mohammed, Y., Giera, M., van der Kant, R. (2025). The Neurolipid Atlas: a lipidomics resource for neurodegenerative diseases uncovers cholesterol as a regulator of astrocyte reactivity impaired by ApoE4. Nature Metabolism, in press. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.01.601474v1
- Milioto, C., Carcolé, M., Giblin, A., Coneys, R., Attrebi, O., Ahmed, M., Harris, S.S., Lee, B.I., Yang, M., Ellingford, R.A., Nirujogi, R.S., Biggs, D., Salomonsson, S., Zanovello, M., de Oliveira, P., Katona, E., Glaria, I., Mikheenko, A., Geary, B., Udine, E., Vaizoglu, D., Anoar, S., Jotangiya, K., Crowley, G., Smeeth, D.M., Adams, M.L., Niccoli, T., Rademakers, R., van Blitterswijk, M., Devoy, A., Hong, S., Partridge, L., Fratta, P., Alessi, D.R., Davies, B., Busche, M.A., Greensmith, L., Fisher, E.M.C., Isaacs, A.M. (2024). PolyGR and polyPR knock-in mice reveal a conserved neuroprotective extracellular matrix signature in C9orf72 ALS/FTD neurons. Nature Neuroscience, 27, 643–655. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01589-4
- Morón-Oset, J., Fischer, L.K., Carcolé, M., Giblin, A., Zhang, P., Isaacs, A.M., Grönke, S., Partridge, L. (2023). Toxicity of C9orf72- associated dipeptide repeat peptides is modified by commonly used protein tags. Life Science Alliance 6(9). e202201739. https://doi.org/10.26508/lsa.202201739
- Xu, D.*, Vincent, A.*, González-Gutiérrez, A., Aleyakpo, B., Anoar, S., Giblin, A., Atilano, M.L., Adams, M., Shen, D., Thoeng, A., Tsintzas, E., Maeland, M., Isaacs, A.M., Sierralta, J., Niccoli, T. (2023). A monocarboxylate transporter rescues frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease models. PLOS Genetics 19(9): e1010893. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010893
Select awards
- 2025 – Jean Corsan Prize
- 2024 – UK Dementia Research Institute PhD Prize
- 2019 – Mason Technology Prize for Best Final Year Pharmacology Thesis, University of Galway
- 2017 – Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Academic Exchange Scholarship
