Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Georgia Minakaki is a postdoctoral scholar in the Laboratory of Dr. Dimitri Krainc, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Georgia obtained her Bachelor’s in Biology from the Department of Biology, University of Crete and Master’s in Molecular Medicine -Specialty Neurobiology from the Interdepartmental Program of the Medical School of Athens, Greece. Furthermore, she conducted her PhD research in the Group of Dr. Jochen Klucken, Department of Molecular Neurology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Currently, her postdoctoral research aims to identify genes and cellular pathways that, in addition to pathogenic GBA1 variants, may play a role in Parkinson’s disease onset. She focuses on a genome-wide CRISPR interference screen for genetic modifiers of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase activity, which may provide novel insights into disease risk, with therapeutic implications for Parkinson’s and additional neurodegenerative diseases with underlying lysosomal dysfunction.