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Neurodegenerative disorders affect millions of people globally, with significant impact on individuals and their families, economies and society as a whole. Considering the lack of effective drugs to treat most of these diseases, it is our ambition to discover molecular triggers of neurodegeneration and glial dysfunction and use this information to identify possible therapeutic targets.

Our research has focussed on unravelling changes in the central nervous system, in particular in glial cells, during normal development and as a consequence of disease. In addition, we aim to identify the molecular mechanisms that underly these observed changes and what the consequences are for the nervous system.

Our main field of research include:

  • microglia in human development and a potential link to neurodevelopmental disorders;
  • the role of microglia and astrocytes in multiple sclerosis;
  • spatial gene expression analysis in the healthy and diseased central nervous system;
  • single-cell/nucleus gene expression analysis to detect cellular heterogeneity in the healthy and diseased central nervous system;
  • epigenetic mechanisms regulating microglia (disease) states.
Relevance

Understanding the functions and interactions of CNS cells

To be able to modulate or restore CNS functions to the benefit of human health is of primary relevance. The number of people suffering from CNS disease is rapidly increasing and the underlying pathophysiology often poorly understood. To elucidate the mechanisms involved in these neuropathological processes, and the identification of cellular processes that are perturbed is of great importance as these are the potential points of intervention, for urgently needed therapeutic interventions:

  • fundamental understanding of the molecular neurobiological systems of the CNS;
  • genetic, molecular and cellular causes underlying the pathophysiology of human CNS diseases (neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration);
  • identification of therapeutic targets for human CNS diseases;
  • omics approaches to delineate CNS disease aetiology and progression;
  • state-of-the-art technologies to drive innovation in life sciences and medicine.

Research Interests:

  •  In this line of research, we want to understand how and where MS lesion emerge, and how they progress. Profiling approaches of human CNS tissues and hiPSC models are used.

  • We are characterizing microglia subtypes in relation to Alzheimer pathology. For these studies, we employ omics technologies on human CNS tissues and hiPSCs.

  • We are characterizing microglia during development and aim to decipher how they are affected by maternal inflammation.

  • We aim to define the molecular mechanisms that drive distinct microglia states that we identified in the context of disease (AD, MS) in order to generate model systems that will allow us to determine the function of these states.

Contact

Small profile photo of S. Kooistra
Susanne Kooistra Head of Glia in development and disease, Assistant professor

Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems
Glia in development and disease
Internal Zip code FB32
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
Internal Zip code FB32
9700 AD Groningen
The Netherlands

Visiting address
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems
Glia in development and disease
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
9713 AV Groningen
The Netherlands

location: Building 3215, 8th floor, room 0805a