Topic: Human iPSCs

The corticospinal tract is a complex system of paramount importance for the control of voluntary movements. It originates in the cerebral cortex from upper motor neurons which directly contact the lower motor neurons located in the ventral horns of the spinal cord. Lower motor neurons, in turn, form synapses with skeletal muscle cells delivering the signal generated in the brain. Insults to this system, such as spinal cord injuries or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cause dysfunction and degeneration of motor neurons leading to severe and untreatable pathological conditions. We aim to explore t

Microglia, tissue-resident macrophages of the brain, are strongly involved in the maintenance of brain homeostasis. Genome-wide association studies have established their critical role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but their precise contribution is not yet clarified. Most AD preclinical studies are performed in transgenic mouse models. However murine and human microglia have different transcriptomic profiles with aging. Interestingly, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) – derived models enable studying human-like cells. Our project aims to generate human iPSCs-derived micr