Karolina Pircs obtained her PhD in cell biology with summa cum laude qualification in the laboratory of Prof. Gábor Juhász in Budapest, Hungary at Eötvös Lóránd University. Her impressive publication record with 9 publications during her PhD years (2 first author) and her unique expertise focusing on autophagy made her a great addition to the group of Prof. Johan Jakobsson, Molecular Neurogenetics laboratory at Lund University, Sweden as a Postdoc. Currently, Karolina is running two laboratories, one at Lund University as an Associate Senior Lecturer since 2019 and at Semmelweis University entitled HCEMM-SU Neurobiology and neurodegenerative diseases as a Senior Researcher since 2021. Her research interest is to understand, using young and old donor-derived induced neurons obtained from fibroblasts, how alterations in autophagy contribute to healthy ageing and the pathophysiology of age-related, chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s disease. The induced neuronal model is based on transdifferentiation, direct reprogramming of adult human dermal fibroblasts into neurons, in which the ageing signature of the donor cells is uniquely maintained. Generating induced neurons from individuals of various ages allows for producing and studying neurons of different ages. Therefore, direct neuronal reprogramming provides access to donor-derived neurons that contain both the genetic and ageing signature of the donor offering a cell model to study ageing and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. In the future, this model could help better understand the ageing process itself, as well as for discovering new drug targets.