Guest lectures by Ulrich Dirnagl and Ron McKay

Welcome to a CMBN seminar, Wednesday April 16th 2008, 14.00 -
16.00, in the lunch room (Anatomy Department).

We will have the pleasure to have two guests presenting:

1) Ulrich Dirnagl: "Cytoprotective therapy in stroke: why are we still waiting?"

2) Ron McKay: "Stem cells: prospects for future therapy in chronic neurodegenerative disease"

Each talk will be about 30 minutes, followed by a discussion.

Please find below information on these two excellent researchers.

****
Dr.Dirnagl is the director of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Klinik für Neurologie, The Department of Experimental Neurology, and is
working in translational neuroscience in the areas of cerebral blood
flow regulation, brain damage by stroke and bacterial inflammation, as
well as endogenous neuroprotection. Dr. Dirnagl is an expert in the
field of stroke - prevention, treatment, regeneration. In cell culture
and in vivo models of stroke, as well as in clinical studies they are
investigating the complex cascades of damage after focal cerebral
ischemia (stroke). A particular focus is on endogenous mechanisms of
protection (ischemic tolerance, preconditioning) and on delayed
mechanisms of damage (inflammation, apoptosis). In addition, they study
the interaction of the damaged brain with the peripheral immune system,
and the consequences of this interaction for stroke outcome.


Selected papers:
Endres M, Engelhardt B, Koistinaho J, Lindvall O, Meairs S, Mohr JP,
Planas A, Rothwell N, Schwaninger M, Schwab ME, Vivien D, Wieloch T,
Dirnagl U.
Improving outcome after stroke: overcoming the translational roadblock.
Cerebrovasc Dis. 2008;25(3):268-78.

Crossley NA, Sena E, Goehler J, Horn J, van der Worp B, Bath PM, Macleod
M, Dirnagl U. Empirical evidence of bias in the design of experimental
stroke studies: a metaepidemiologic approach.
Stroke. 2008 Mar;39(3):929-34.

Leithner C, Gertz K, Schröck H, Priller J, Prass K, Steinbrink J,
Villringer A, Endres M, Lindauer U, Dirnagl U, Royl G.
A flow sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR)-MRI protocol to
measure hemispheric cerebral blood flow in a mouse stroke model.
Exp Neurol. 2008 Mar;210(1):118-27. Epub 2007 Oct 18

Meisel C, Schwab JM, Prass K, Meisel A, Dirnagl U.
Central nervous system injury-induced immune deficiency syndrome.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005 Oct;6(10):775-86. Review

Nedergaard M, Dirnagl U.
Role of glial cells in cerebral ischemia.
Glia. 2005 Jun;50(4):281-6. Review


***
Dr.Ron McKay is an expert in the field of stem cells and
neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory at National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)/NIH, Division of Intramural
Research, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, has a main interest in use of
stem cells in therapies for Parkinsonian patients. Their goal is to
develop a stem cell that provides an unlimited supply of quality
controlled midbrain dopamine neurons. They have evidence for a common
stem cell generating the central and peripheral nervous system. This
cell can be obtained in large numbers and provides an ideal system to
analyze the pathways that control fate choice.

Selected papers:
Androutsellis-Theotokis A, Murase S, Boyd JD, Park DM, Hoeppner DJ,
Ravin R, McKay RD.
Generating neurons from stem cells.
Methods Mol Biol. 2008;438:31-8

Tesar PJ, Chenoweth JG, Brook FA, Davies TJ, Evans EP, Mack DL, Gardner
RL, McKay RD.
New cell lines from mouse epiblast share defining features
with human embryonic stem cells.
Nature. 2007 Jul 12;448(7150):196-9.

Murase S, McKay RD.
A specific survival response in dopamine neurons at most risk in
Parkinson's disease.
J Neurosci. 2006 Sep 20;26(38):9750-60.

Androutsellis-Theotokis A, Leker RR, Soldner F, Hoeppner DJ, Ravin R,
Poser SW, Rueger MA, Bae SK, Kittappa R, McKay RD.
Notch signalling regulates stem cell numbers in vitro and in vivo.
Nature. 2006 Aug 17;442(7104):823-6.

Lee SH, Lumelsky N, Studer L, Auerbach JM, McKay RD.
Efficient generation of midbrain and hindbrain neurons from mouse
embryonic stem cells.
Nat Biotechnol. 2000 Jun;18(6):675-9.