Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon, Group Leader in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, is one of six researchers to be awarded the prestigious Vallee Scholar Award in 2024, recognising his achievements in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. The Vallee Foundation seeks to curate a community of international scholars to promote scientific collaboration and advance biomedical research and education. To this end, it appoints Vallee Scholars each year to recognise outstanding, young, independent researchers.
“I am honoured to join the community of Vallee Scholars. I would like to thank my group for all their hard work. This recognition and the support of the Vallee Foundation will help to boost our future research.” Benjamin commented.
Benjamin’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of pathological RNA-binding protein assembly, which underlies many neurodegenerative diseases. His group has used electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) to identify and determine the structures of the assembled proteins that give rise to diverse neurodegenerative diseases. This provides a structural basis for the design of clinical tools to target assembly, and guides research into the molecular mechanisms of assembly.
His group showed that assembled TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), which is responsible for almost all cases of motor neuron disease (MND) and around half of cases of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), adopts amyloid filament structures with distinct folds in different diseases. Recently, his group also showed that amyloid filaments can be formed by the co-assembly of different proteins, with the unexpected finding that TDP-43 co-assembles with annexin A11 (ANXA11) in a specific type of FTLD.
Recently, Benjamin’s group discovered that the assembly of another protein,TATA-binding protein-associated factor 15 (TAF15), characterises cases of FTLD and MND in which the assembled protein was previously unknown. This establishes TAF15 as a target for future diagnostic and therapeutic treatments.
Benjamin received a B.Sc. degree from University College London and began his investigations into neurogenerative diseases during his Ph.D. with Michel Goedert at the LMB. He established his research group in 2019. His group’s work has previously been recognised with the 2022 Alzheimer Research Award from the Hans and Ilse Breuer Foundation and the 2023 SCOR Young European Researcher Prize. Benjamin is also a member of the EMBO Young Investigator’s Programme.
The Vallee Foundation have previously awarded Vallee Scholar Awards to LMB Group Leaders Madeline Lancaster and Tanmay Bharat.