Engineered microenvironments to study neuronal migration and associated disorders

Benedikt Berninger (primary)
Centre for Developmental Neurobiology
King's College
Alvaro Mata (secondary)
School of Engineering and Materials Science
Queen Mary University of London

Abstract

A particular feature during brain development is the massive migration of neural progenitors generating the intricate connectivity that gives rise to complex brain sensorial and motor functions. The fact that more than 25 syndromes exist associated with neuronal migration disorders in humans highlights the importance of this cell locomotion. However, the lack of adequate models for studying migration has limited our understanding of the highly diverse nature of these developmental disorders. By combining expertise in developmental neurobiology (Berninger) and biomaterials (Mata) we aim to develop a platform for elucidating the migratory mechanisms of different neuronal types during development and disease.


References

Zhao et al. 2018, Microenvironments to study migration and somal translocation in cortical neurons. Biomaterials. 156:238-247. j.biomaterials.2017.11.042.

Ortega et al. 2013, Oligodendrogliogenic and neurogenic adult subependymal zone neural stem cells constitute distinct lineages and exhibit differential responsiveness to Wnt signaling. Nat Cell Biol. 5(6):602-13. 10.1038/ncb2736.

Zhang et al, A self-assembly pathway to aligned monodomain gels. Nature Materials. 9(7), 594-601. 10.1038/nmat2778.

Aguilar et al, 3D electrophoresis-assisted lithography (3DEAL): 3D molecular printing to create functional patterns and anisotropic hydrogels. Advanced Functional Materials 10.1002/adfm.201703014.

Hedegaard et al, Hydrodynamically guided hierarchical self-assembly of peptide-protein bioinks. Advanced Functional Materials 10.1002/adfm.201703716.


BBSRC Area
Molecules, cells and industrial biotechnology
Area of Biology
Cell BiologyChemical BiologyDevelopmentNeurobiologyPhysiology
Techniques & Approaches
BiophysicsChemistryEngineeringImage ProcessingMathematics / StatisticsMicroscopy / ElectrophysiologyMolecular Biology