Güney Akbalik (Postdoctoral Research Associate)does research that aims to understand how RNA localization and dynamics go awry in motor neurons and non-neuronal cells during ALS progression using human induced pluripotent stem cells. Her previous work on the role of coding and noncoding RNAs in synaptic plasticity sparked her interest in RNA-based mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. She pursued her PhD studies in the lab of Prof. Erin Schuman at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, where she established the visualization of newly synthesized RNA in neurons using click chemistry approach, developed a fluorescence sensor to visualize the activity-dependent localized microRNA maturation with her collaborators and she was a member of the team which identified neural circular RNAs.