In connection with grants from the Lundbeck Foundation, we are pleased to welcome Professor Anthony Vernon and Professor Henning Ulrich. 

Please join us for an exciting double lecture.

Time: April 3^rd 10:30-12:15
Place: Aarhus University Hospital -  J116-111 and J116-112 – find on map

10:30-11:15 Professor Anthony Vernon, King’s College London, UK
Using hiPSC to illuminate the neurobiology of mental health
The human iPSC platform has significant potential for the improvement of mental disorder diagnosis, prediction, prevention, and treatment. Human iPSC technology offers novel possibilities in studies of the basic molecular and cellular etiopathology of mental disorders as well as investigating drug response mechanisms and novel drug discovery. In this talk I will give an overview of the conceptual framework underlying these statements and how these have led to guidelines for best practice in this field. I will illustrate this with examples of current research projects in the Vernon lab, focusing on the use hiPSC to understand the biology of genetic risk variants associated with psychiatric disorders in diverse brain cell types during human cortical development.

11:15-11:30 Break

11:30-12:15 Professor Henning Ulrich, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Purinergic signaling in neurogenesis and neurodegeneration
Purinergic receptors have been shown to be important for development and tissue regeneration. Here, we have explored the participation of purinergic receptors in brain diseases, such as Parkinson´s and Huntington´s disease, using in vitro and in vivo models. Purinergic P2Y2 and P2X7 receptors have been studied in our laboratory regarding their roles in neural proliferation differentiation of stem cell models. P2Y2 and P2X7 receptors have antagonistic roles in this context with the P2Y2 receptor triggering neuronal fate determination and the P2X7 receptor promoting gliogenesis. We have also linked these receptors to neurodegeneration and provide novel promising targets for therapeutic approaches. Unilateral dopaminergic neuron degeneration was induced by 6OH-dopamine injection to generate an experimental Parkinson’s disease (PD) rat model. P2X7 receptor antagonism mediated neuroregenerative and neuroprotective effects in the PD model. Huntington’s disease (HD), an autosomal dominant inherited disease caused by at least 35 repetitions of the N-terminal CAG trinucleotide (glutamine) in the Huntington’s gene, results in the loss of basal ganglia GABAergic neurons. HD was modeled in vitro using CRISPR-Cas9 modified embryonic stem and HD patient-iPS cells induced to neuronal differentiation. P2Y2 receptor activation promoted cell fate commitment to GABAergic neurons, providing a target for therapeutic intervention. In summary, the here shown results point at the importance of purinergic receptors as targets in neurodegeneration foreseeing therapeutic applications.

For further information, please contact:

• Associate Professor Sâmia Joca (sjoca@biomed.au.dk) or
• Associate Professor Anne Landau (alandau@clin.au.dk)

Short Biographies

Dr Anthony Vernon trained in Biochemistry (BSc) and Neuropharmacology (PhD) at Imperial College London, followed by post-doctoral fellowships with Dr Michel Modo and Professor Shitij Kapur at the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP), King’s College London (KCL). Dr Vernon was appointed to the IOP faculty in 2013 and is now a Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience and Group Leader and PhD training co-ordinator at the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, KCL.

Research in the Vernon lab is focused on two themes: 1) Linking neuroimaging data to behavioural, molecular and cellular phenotypes, where we seek to understand how neuroimaging data from individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) aligns with human cellular and animal models using a reverse-translational approach. 2) using human induced pluripotent stem cells to illuminate the neurobiology of genetic risk factors for NDDs, with a focus on microglia and cortical development.

Prof. Henning Ulrich studied biology at the University of Hamburg and Kiel, Germany. He holds a PhD. in Biochemistry and Neuroscience of the University of Hamburg. He completed his training by postdoctoral research at the Center of Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Hamburg, Cornell University and the Institute of Chemistry at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He obtained his habilitation (DD. Sc.) in 2007. He is Full Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo.  He investigates purinergic and kininergic signaling in neurogenesis, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. He is a founding member of the Brazilian Purine Club (Brazilian Society of Purinergic Signaling), Vice-President (2010-2012) and President (2012-2018 and 2021-2027) of the society and has chaired many congresses of the Brazilian Purine Club. He is Editor of peer-reviewed journals with focus on neuroscience, cytometry, stem cells and purinergic signaling. He is Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and has a H factor of 56 (12.000 citations Google Scholar). He was awarded with a Brazil Fulbright Global Health Chair at Rutgers Medical School in 2023 and is Visiting Professor at the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University, funded by the Lundbeck Foundation.