Juan Reyes

Juan Reyes is a Senior Lecturer (Docent) and Principal Research Engineer at Linköping University, affiliated with the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) and the Division of Cell and Neurobiology (CNB). He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University and has conducted postdoctoral research at Lund University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). His research focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with a focus on mechanisms of protein aggregation and propagation.

Reyes’ work examines alpha-synuclein pathology in PD and related synucleinopathies, including the role of cellular connectivity (e.g., gap junction proteins like connexin 32) in protein transfer between neurons and oligodendrocytes. His lab has also identified alpha-synuclein accumulation in peripheral tissues, such as the liver, suggesting novel avenues for therapeutic intervention. Recent findings include a novel molecular mechanism linking connexin proteins to alpha-synuclein spread, published in Acta Neuropathologica (2019) and Acta Neuropathologica Communications (2021).

His research spans transcriptomic analyses of patient-derived oligodendrocytes, modeling protein transfer in organotypic slice cultures (ESOS model), and investigating the role of retromer dysfunction in amyloid-beta accumulation. Reyes’ contributions bridge basic neuroscience and clinical applications, with implications for understanding disease progression and developing diagnostic tools.

He is actively involved in the Division of Cell and Neurobiology, contributing to both research and teaching. His work has been published in high-impact journals such as PNAS, Acta Neuropathologica, and Journal of Neuroscience.