Agnete Kirkeby

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology, DanStem, University of Copenhagen

Title: Building human fetal brains and neurons from stem cells

Abstract: Pluripotent stem cells can be used to produce human subtype-specific neuronal cells for disease modelling and regenerative cell therapy. We have developed a highly efficient method to produce midbrain dopaminergic neurons from human embryonic stem cells, and based on promising results in rodent disease models, we are currently planning a pioneering clinical stem cell therapy trial in Parkinson’s Disease. To better study human neural subtype differentiation and human brain development, we have further tissue engineered a model of human neural tube development based on human embryonic stem cells and microfluidic gradients.