FORNEUROCELL

BAVARIAN RESEARCH NETWORK FOR ADULT NEURAL STEM CELLS

Optical and MR imaging tools to track neural stem and precursors cells in adult brains

The recent discovery of neural stem cells in the adult brain has encouraged the field to develop neural stem cell based therapies for the treatment of so far not curable brain diseases. At the same time, the field of in vivo imaging of brain function and brain disease is progressing enormously: i) in vivo imaging allows the immediate observation of biological processes in a non-invasive fashion and to follow these processes in an individual organism over time; ii) in vivo imaging will be highly important for the evaluation of the potential, the risk, and therefore for the preclinical and clinical development of a given therapy. The aim of the project is to develop optical and MR imaging tools to track neural stem and precursors cells in the brains of adult animals. The long-term goal is to adapt these tools for the clinical use.