Cologne Seminars on Ageing "Metabolic regulation of adult neural stem cells"

About the talk:

Cellular metabolism has emerged as a key player in the regulation of stem cells. This is also true for neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs), which form the brain during development, and persist in certain adult brain regions, generating new neurons throughout adulthood. While classically seen as rather glycolytic cells, recent studies have shown that mitochondrial metabolism and lipid build-up and break-down directly control NSPC behavior. In this talk, I will present the most recent findings of my laboratory, focussing on understanding the metabolic requirements of NSPCs and how metabolic alterations affect their behaviour in vitro and in vivo.

Scientific Background:

Marlen Knobloch has been trained as a neurobiologist, obtaining her PhD with Prof. Nitsch at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where she developed a novel mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease and contributed to a new immunization approach.
Her postdoctoral work with Prof. Jessberger at ETH/ University of Zürich focused on the metabolic requirements of adult neural stem cells. Her work has uncovered an important mechanism how lipid metabolism controls neural stem cell activity.
In 2017, Marlen Knobloch obtained an assistant professorship at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and has been promoted to associate professor in march this year. She and her team are studying how metabolism regulates neural stem cell behaviour, with a specific focus on lipid metabolism.