Dr. Nora Bengoa-Vergniory is a principal investigator at the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience (Spain). After receiving her PhD from the University of the Basque Country for her studies of the early stages of neuronal differentiation, she moved to Oxford University (UK) to complete her postdoctoral training. There, she studied protein aggregation and glial activation in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). With funding from multiple sources including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, she and her colleagues found a novel neuroprotective role for the master gene regulator REST/NRSF and the aggregation-disrupting compound CLR01. As a specialist in the detection of early aggregates through so-called “proximity ligation assays” (PLA) and other techniques, she and her colleagues recently developed a novel approach for the early detection of tau aggregates. Her laboratory focusses on the crosstalk between aggregates and glia in disease, to develop disease-modifying therapies for PD and AD.