Ángel Raya - Spain
Center of Regenerative Medicine
in Barcelona
in Barcelona
iPSC-Based Modeling of Human Neurodegenerative Diseases: Possibilities, Trials and Tribulations
MD, PhD.
ICREA Research Professor
Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB), Barcelona
Spain
The reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) using delivery of defined combinations of transcription factors is a groundbreaking discovery that opens great opportunities for modeling human diseases. iPSC-based experimental models of human diseases are particularly needed for conditions for which existing animal-based models do not capture the relevant etiopathogenesis events, such as many neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Here, I
will discuss efforts from our laboratory to generate genuinely-human
experimental models of PD. From the recapitulation of disease-relevant
cell-autonomous phenotypes, to the discovery of early neuronal network
dysfunctions and genetic risk/protective variants, our studies enable (and
require) the generation of models every time closer to the actual patient.
Perhaps too close?
Profile Link:
https://www.cmrb.eu/qui-som/fitxa_personal?ID=115&CATEGORY2=43
