Janet Van Eersel

Dr Janet van Eersel is a group leader in the Dementia Research Centre in the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University. Janet recieved her PhD from the Department of Pathology at the University of Sydney in 2010. She then began working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Research Centre where she continued her work on dementia. In 2011, she was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council to support her fellowship. In 2013, Janet moved to the University of NSW where she worked as a junior group leader and research-only Lecturer in the Dementia Research Unit headed by Prof Lars Ittner in the Faculty of Medicine. In 2018, Janet then joined Macquarie University as a group leader in the Dementia Research Centre.

The research of Dr van Eersel focuses on the pathology and mechanisms underlying common forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration. To study these disorders, Dr van Eersel utilises multiple techniques and methods including animal models, cell culture, molecular biology, histology and biochemistry. Most recently, Dr van Eersel has started to focus in on the protein Tau and how it can potentially be secreted from neurons within the brain and the role that endoplasmic reticulum stress may play in this process.