Marcos Otero-Garcia, PhD

Changes in brain cellular and molecular architecture are fundamental to aging and disease. These intricated spatial patterns have limited our ability to decipher neurodegenerative processes. However, recent advances in single-cell and spatial omics methods present an opportunity to leap our understanding of the mechanisms behind neurodegenerative disease progression.

I am deeply interested in technological innovation and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly the development of spatial omics methods to study tau pathology in Alzheimer's Disease. During my postdoctoral training at UCLA and Stanford, we designed novel methods for unbiased single-cell profiling of human brain tissue. Our approach revealed specific neuronal cell types susceptible to neurofibrillary tangles and the associated molecular signatures in Alzheimer’s Disease patients. However, single-cell sequencing protocols compromise the important spatial context. To fill this gap, I joined industry efforts to create spatial omics technologies capable of interrogating hundreds of targets in intact tissue sections, and applied them study brain development, neurodegeneration and demyelination mouse models.

I am currently using single-cell and spatial omics approaches to study neurofibrillary pathology progression in Alzheimer's Disease. My goal is to create innovative tools and valuable insights to advance our understanding of neurodegenerative processes, identify therapeutic targets, and improve human health.