ForInter
BAVARIAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION INTERACTION OF HUMAN BRAIN CELLS
The association
The human brain has a complicated architecture of divers and specialised cells, like neurons, glial and microglial cells. These cells form and interact in functional and dynamic circuits, thus providing the basis for the complex functions of the human brain.
Even though our understanding of the human brain has made tremendous advances in recent decades, many questions about the physiological and pathological functions of the human brain remain unanswered until to date. The structural analysis of the brain can be performed in post mortem brain tissue, but these neuroanatomical and pathological studies only represent a static approach and reflect the specific variables only at a fixed point of time. For a deeper understanding, dynamic and functional investigations of the interaction between the different cells in the human brain are required.
Therefore, the Bavarian Consortium ForInter aims to investigate the interaction between the different cell types in the human brain using multidimensional cell culture systems based on the hypothesis:
Defined human cell-cell systems are able to model the physiological and pathological interactions of cells in the human brain.
The achievements in biology and stem cell research of the past years laid the foundation for the generation of multidimensional cell-culture systems and 3D brain organoides. These model systems promise novel insights in the structural and dynamic interactions and allow the analysis of the physiological development of the human brain as well as of pathological processes.
The consortium ForInter brings together basic researchers, human stem cell biologists, translational neurologists, and neuropathologists. Additionally, researchers in bioinformatics as well as in the field of ethics and laws contribute their expertise for this interdisciplinary network.
The consortium provides as essential platforms
a) the generation of specific cell types and neural organoides
b) co-cultures of different cell-types of the nervous system in 2-dimensional or 3 dimensional structures
and furthermore state-of-the-art methodological skills, like
• Single cell RNA seq analysis
• CRISPR/CAS 9 technology for genome editing
• bioinformatic methods for data analysis
Thus, the consortium offers ideal conditions for exploring open questions concerning the development of the brain and on physiological as well pathological functions.
ForInter aims to analyse the cell-cell interaction of human neural cells. The studies will use from induced plurioptent stem cells (IPSCs) derived neurons, oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, microglia, pericytes.