Frontiers in Health Sciences seminar

Frontiers in Health Sciences is a seminar series organized by the Faculty of Health Sciences and targeted to researchers, teachers, and students. The seminar is organized by the doctoral programmes of the Faculty of Health Sciences. 

Frontiers in Health Sciences seminar series continues with a lecture by Assistant Professor Helena Kilpinen, PhD, University of Helsinki, on the title:

Towards better brain health with human cellular models – from molecular signatures to function.

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) -based culture systems have led to a major shift in how we perform and think about human disease modeling, particularly in the context of disorders with a developmental origin. For example, human iPSC-derived neurons and glia have revolutionized the study of brain-related disorders, which previously relied heavily on animal models and post-mortem tissue. However, a significant bottleneck in the field lies in the scalability of iPSC-based experiments, as most current studies are underpowered to detect disease-relevant cellular phenotypes. Further, while genomic technologies, such as single cell RNA-sequencing, are essential in characterising the full spectrum of cell types generated in vitro, gene expression levels alone do not comprehensively reflect changes in cellular function and the biological processes that ultimately drive disease pathophysiology, highlighting the need to measure additional cellular phenotypes. To this end, I will discuss some of the recent efforts in my group to scale up iPSC studies and to understand phenotypic variability in iPSC-derived neuronal cells. 

The event will be held in English and is open to everyone interested. Welcome!

For further information, please contact Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Molecular Medicine, email dpmm@uef.fi.