Alexander Kai Buell, PhD

Dr. Alexander Kai Buell received a PhD in 2011 from the University of Cambridge, UK, where he developed biosensor assays that allow measurement of the growth rates of amyloid fibrils more accurately than possible before. During his postdoctoral studies, also at the University of Cambridge, he focused on the mechanism of aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein, which is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease. That project was the first to describe an autocatalytic mechanism through which amyloid fibrils of alpha-synuclein can multiply and proliferate. As an assistant professor at the University of Düsseldorf (2015-2019), he continued his research on the mechanism of alpha-synuclein aggregation. His group has presented the evidence that the process of secondary nucleation of a disease-related protein does not propagate the structural characteristics of the parent fibril. Since 2019, he has been a professor of protein biophysics in Denmark, where he continues to work on pathological protein aggregation.