Rate My Professor Bruce Mockett

Dr. Bruce Mockett serves as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology within the University of Otago's Division of Sciences. Affiliated with the Neural Mechanisms of Memory Lab, the Brain Health Research Centre, and the Neuroscience programme, he earned his BSc, DipSci, and PhD from Massey University. Mockett's research specializes in neuroscience, focusing on synaptic plasticity underlying memory processes and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease. His work examines the neuroprotective roles of secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha (sAPPα), metaplasticity in hippocampal long-term depression, and molecular mechanisms of synaptic modulation.

Mockett has published extensively on these topics, with key contributions including 'Therapeutic potential of secreted amyloid precursor protein APPsα' (Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 2017), 'NMDA receptor-mediated metaplasticity during the induction of long-term depression by low-frequency stimulation' (European Journal of Neuroscience, 2002), 'Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II mediates group I metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent protein synthesis and long-term depression in rat hippocampus' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2011), 'Neutrophil-vascular interactions drive myeloperoxidase accumulation in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease' (Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 2022), and 'Lentivirus-mediated expression of human secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha prevents development of memory and plasticity deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease' (Molecular Brain, 2018). In January 2025, he was awarded a $175,549 grant from the Neurological Foundation to develop gene therapy models for Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia via peripheral virus injection delivering therapeutic proteins to the brain, in collaboration with Professor Cliff Abraham, Professor Stephanie Hughes, and Harvard researchers. This project advances over two decades of his laboratory research toward clinical translation.