PhD Arun Kumar Somavarapu from DTU Chemistry has been awarded DTU's 'Young Researcher Award 2018' for his thesis. The award is given to young researchers who have put in extraordinary efforts to their thesis and have great potential for further development.
At the annual PhD Graduation Ceremony last Friday at DTU, PhD Arun Kumar Somavarapu was honored for his thesis “Structural dynamics and pathogenicity of Aβ and presenilin1 variants: Towards a mechanistic understanding of Alzheimer’s disease”.
Obviously, Arun Kumar Somavarapu is glad to be one of the selected few:
“I am so pleased and honored to receive DTU's Young Researcher Award. I always believe in hard work and there is no substitute for it. This award definitely boosts my confidence and motivate me to work even harder to achieve my future goals”, Arun says – and continues:
“I expect the research findings presented in my PhD thesis will be helpful in designing new therapeutic strategies for treating Alzheimer's disease".
Managed to identify important structural origins of proteins
In short, Arun’s thesis focused on two major proteins namely Amyloid beta (Aβ) and Presenilin1 (PSEN1), which plays a significant role in Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The findings presented in the PhD thesis describes some fundamental structural origins of Aβ and PSEN1 variants that drive disease severity, which is an essential premise for understanding and targeting Alzheimer's disease.
Professor Kasper Planeta Kepp was Arun’s supervisor during the PhD.
Read more about Arun Kumar Somavarapu’s work "Closing in on the Causes of Alzheimer’s" in DTU Chemistry's Annual Report.