Ragna Sannerud

Ragna Sannerud is a staff scientist at the Center for Brain and Disease Research, working in Wim Annaert's laboratory for membrane trafficking, in Leuven, Belgium. Her work focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration, with a particular interest on membrane transport and the biological function of -secretase, a critical enzyme implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.
With a background in biochemistry and molecular biology, she did her doctorate studies at the University of Bergen in Norway, in the laboratory of Prof. Jaakko Saraste, where she specialised in the biogenesis of the early secretory transport. She then joined Prof. Wim Annaert's group as a postdoc, investigating the endo-lysosomal transport regulation and its dysregulation in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.
By combining biochemical and imaging approaches, her research has advanced scientific knowledge of cellular processes involved in Alzheimer’s disease, including how the regulation of the endosomal transport affects the metabolism of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), a process that generates amyloid plaques, one of the hallmarks of the disease.