Gabriele Kaminski Schierle is a neuroscientist focused on alpha-synuclein. She has used super-resolution imaging and biophysical tools to gain insight into how alpha-synuclein interacts with calcium and synaptic vesicles at the pre-synapse, where neurons communicate with other cells. She is further known for developing an optical tool to study protein aggregation as it occurs in live cells and organisms. Using fluorescence imaging, she showed how alpha-synuclein aggregation could be studied throughout the lifetime of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which has become a widely applied tool for screening aggregation inhibitors in different C. elegans models of neurodegeneration. Dr. Kaminski Schierle is a pioneer in the field of how the cellular environment influences alpha synuclein-structure, particularly how ions and water can either promote or inhibit alpha-synuclein aggregation. Her work has improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and facilitated future drug design.