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The impact of neuroanatomy on my career: from adult neurogenesis to in vitro disease modelling
Author(s) -
Merkle Florian
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.385.1
Subject(s) - neurogenesis , neuroscience , neuroanatomy , biology , neural stem cell , stem cell , embryonic stem cell , adult stem cell , induced pluripotent stem cell , olig2 , progenitor cell , anatomy , psychology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , central nervous system , oligodendrocyte , myelin , gene
I am truly honored to be selected for this year's Young Investigator Award. It only seems appropriate to highlight how insights from neuroanatomy have shaped my career. I have always marvelled at how something as fantastically complex and beautiful as the brain could develop, so I pursued this curiosity by studying adult neurogenesis as a PhD student. By observing and taking advantage of the unique anatomical characteristics of early stem cells, my colleagues in Arturo Alvarez‐Buylla's laboratory and I demonstrated the lineage relationship of embryonic and adult neural stem cells. We further labelled stem cells in different regions of the adult neurogenic niche to show that they are better classified as distinct and restricted progenitors than homogeneous multipotent stem cells, and in the process identified four novel types of adult‐born interneurons. As a postdoctoral fellow, I used insights from developmental biology and anatomy to develop a method to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into specific populations of hypothalamic neurons that regulate essential behavioral and physiological functions, such as feeding and sleep. In my own laboratory, we are now using single cell RNA sequencing and cellular assays to explore the functional heterogeneity of in vitro‐derived neurons. We then use these insights to map neuronal sub‐populations back to the mouse and human brain, where their anatomical location provides essential clues as to their likely function in the organism. Although new tools and evolving research interests have altered the trajectory of my career, neuroanatomy has provided a constant link. Support or Funding Information The research presented in this talk was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Cancer Research, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Current funding sources include the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the University of Cambridge.