[Jun. 22] D5 Medical & Life Science Seminar-Dr. Tomohisa Toda

June 14 2022

The "D5 Medical & Life Science Seminar" course will be offered by International Research Center for Medical Sciences (IRCMS). It will run from May 2022 to March 2023, with lectures given by scientists who are affiliated with IRCMS or in collaboration with researchers at IRCMS. The lectures will be given once a month, in English, and by leading scientists in the relevant research field. Students will be taught: 1) how normal physiological functions are maintained in the human body; 2) how these systems become abnormal under certain pathophysiologic conditions; 3) why stem cells are important in animal development and homeostasis; 4) how stem cell-based approaches can help us understand disease mechanisms and find potential cure for diseases related to stem cell malfunction (e.g., cancer, aging).

Anyone who wants to join is welcome.
For students who have registered for the course, please check your attendance in Moodle.

Date      : June 22, 2022 (Wednesday)

Time      : 16:00 -
              * Zoom online seminar

Speaker : Dr. Tomohisa Toda 
                 Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen, (DZNE)

Title        : Roles of long-lived cellular constituents in the maintenance of brain

Abstract :

  Ageing is one of the most critical risk factors for neurological and psychiatric diseases. However, the biological links between physiological ageing and pathological development are still largely unknown. A solid understanding of the biology of brain ageing will thus be a key to developing the means to treat these diseases. Since neurons and adult neural progenitor cells in the brain are mostly generated during development with limited capacity of replacement, they need to maintain their identity and function throughout our lives. We recently discovered that a cell type-specific nuclear architecture organized by nucleoporins and nuclear lamins work as a structural gatekeeper for the maintenance of neural progenitor cells (NPs). Strikingly, nucleoporins and lamins are the most long-lived proteins in a cell and are known to be damaged during brain ageing. Thus, we are addressing how these long-lived proteins contribute to maintain brain plasticity, and how aging affects the identified mechanisms

Selected publications:

1. Bedrosian, TA*, Houtman J*, Eguiguren JS, Ghassemzadeh, S, Rund N, Novaresi. NM, Hu L, Parylak S, Denli AM, Moore RM, Namba T, Gage FH, and Toda T. "Lamin B1 decline underlies age-related loss of adult hippocampal neurogenesis" EMBO Journal (2021):40 e105819. doi: 10.15252/embj.2020105819
2. Toda T, Hsu JY, Linker SB, Hu L, Schafer ST, Mertens J, Jacinto FV, Hetzer MW & Gage FH. "Nup153 interacts with Sox2 to enable bimodal gene regulation and maintenance of neural progenitor cells." Cell Stem Cell, 21, 5, 618-634 (2017) Let me know if these are enough.

Flyer: (Click for a larger image)