Swammerdam Lecture – Ed Lein

Technological advances in single cell and spatial genomics have created the opportunity to create comprehensive atlases of the entire brain that map the cellular complexity of functional architecture across species including human.  These atlases and their classification of cell types provide a foundation for understanding brain function, brain diseases and creating new tools for genetic access to specific cell types.  This talk will focus on three main topics:  First, describing the latest efforts in human brain cell atlasing, and illustrating the use of comparative strategies to understand what makes human brain distinctive.  Second, demonstrating how these tools and knowledge can be used to understand specific cellular vulnerabilities and affected molecular pathways in Alzheimer’s disease.  Finally, illustrating how these genomics-based atlases can be used to identify short enhancer elements that can confer cell type-selective gene expression that can be used in viral vectors for basic research or potentially even therapeutically relevant gene therapy applications.

Masterclass
The aim of this Masterclass is to have a highly interactive and stimulating meeting. The masterclass will be held in the W&N Building, C-616, 1085 De Boelelaan at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. For any questions please contact dr. Natalia Goriounova at n.a.goriounova@vu.nl.

Format:

• ± 5 PhD students will be selected to give a 5-8 min presentation to introduce their research dilemma/discussion point(s) that they would like to discuss with Ed Lein. The presentation should be short to keep ample time for feedback and discussion. It is advised to formulate the questions/discussion points in the last slide.
• The total MSc class takes ±2h
• PhD students who are not selected to present can still attend.
• PhD supervisors do not attend.