Selva Raj Sethupathi

My academic journey is focused on the biology of heparan sulfates (HS) and tau pathology. As part of an international exchange Master’s program from India I got the opportunity to do my internship at the Gly-CRRET research unit at the University of Est-Paris Creteil (UPEC) in France with guidance and supervision from Pr Dulce Papy-Gracia and Dr Minh Bao Huynh. Here I studied the involvement of HS in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) related tauopathy. To gain more insights into HS biology, I followed a second master's course in chemistry of Bioactive Molecules at UPEC to have a chemistry-oriented perspective.  During this period, I studied tauopathy in Sanfilippo syndrome which is a rare pediatricdisease characterized by defective HS degradation that causes neurodegeneration. After these two Master's studies and with the financial support from LIVE I started in 2024 my PhD research to study the specialized sulfotransferases as specific vulnerability factors for distinct rare tauopathies.

Research project:

HS are important glycanic structures which plays a critical role in tau protein interactions and are able to induce tau aggregation in tauopathy related diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Sanfillipo syndrome or others. Till date there are no effective cure available and these neurodegenerative diseases causes significant suffering for patients and their families. To address this growing crisis, it becomes important to study the vulnerabilityfactors that triggers tauopathy. With a novel research concept to study the vulnerability factors directed by Dr Minh Bao Huynh and Pr Dulce Papy-Gracia , I started my PhD research and I study a class of specialized sulfotransferases that are able to make specific HS structures that interact with tau and induces tau aggregation in different brain regions and cells. With the identification of these new vulnerability factors my PhD study may help to understand how their expression can contribute to selective neurodegeneration in tauopathieswith potentially uncovering new targets for therapeutic intervention.