Advances in Biosciences Seminar: Andrea Serio, Francis Crick Institute. "Shape Matters: Combining engineering, stem cell modelling and imaging to learn about neurobiology and neurodegeneration"
| Dates: | 26 March 2024 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health |
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| Who is it for: | University staff |
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| Speaker: | Andrea Serio |
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Abstract: Shape and function are two intimately linked properties in all living cells: the need to perform a certain function has shaped each cell to a specific and optimal shape, which in turns also influences how the cell manages its homeostasis. In cells with very polarised or complex shapes, like neurons and glial cells, this relationship is crucial as several key functions need to be performed across intricate cellular architectures, with challenges that sometimes cannot be met relying solely on diffusion of metabolites or components.
Stem cell-based models and other in vitro experimental systems can effectively recapitulate key aspects of development and have so far allowed a better understanding of key biological mechanisms underpinning human biology and disease. Access to these models has been particularly invaluable for basic and applied neuroscience.
However, conventional culture conditions often fail to approximate cell shape, and overlook some of the engineering constraints that cells in vivo face. In our lab we develop platform and technologies to push forward our understanding of neurobiology and neurodegeneration, focusing on questions that go from axonal biology, astrocyte neuronal interactions, neuromuscular connections and development in health and disease.
Speaker
Andrea Serio
Role: Reader
Organisation: Francis Crick Insitute
Biography: Andrea Serio is a Reader in Neural Tissue Engineering at King’s College London, as well as Principal investigator at the UK Dementia Research Institute, and he holds a position of Group Leader within the Francis Crick Institute. He originally trained in Biotechnology in Universita’ di Padova in 2006, and then pursued a master in medical biotechnology at the San Raffaele Institute in Milan, followed by a PhD in Stem Cell Modelling and Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, which was Awarded in 2014. During his postdoc, he worked at Imperial College, in the department of Bioengineering and in 2017 he opened his lab at King’s College London. He became a Gorup Leader within the Francis Crick Institute in 2019 and subsequently took a position as Principal Investigator at the Dementia Research Institute in 2023.
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Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
