
Jozsef Kiss
Affiliations: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Basic Neurosciences
Group name: Neuromorphology
Domains: Development and Plasticity
Keywords: brain development, brain plasticity, cerebral ischemia, migrating neurons, neural repair, stem cells
Research activities
We are interested in using neural stem/progenitor cells for the study of brain plasticity and neural repair. We seek to understand the molecular control of neural progenitor migration and to develop strategies to direct these cells to sites of injury to achieve structural repair. For this purpose, we developed cell-based in vitro models including organotypic cultures of the cerebral cortex, to analyze the migratory behavior of multipotential neural progenitors using video time-lapse microscopy. Additionally, we investigate the potential of implanted stem/progenitor cells to induce functional recovery in an animal model of neonatal ischemia. We focus on the somatosensory barrel cortex by taking advantage of a recently established methodology for epicranial multielectrode recordings of somatosensory evoked potential that allows for monitoring functional deficit and recovery after injury. Exploring new strategies to improve the integration of grafted cells into recipient host circuits, we employ lentivirus-based genetic engineering to introduce controllable expression of candidate molecules in transplanted cells.
Latest publications
Endogenous erythropoietin signaling regulates migration and laminar positioning of upper-layer neurons in the developing neocortex.
Transplanted Embryonic Neurons Improve Functional Recovery by Increasing Activity in Injured Cortical Circuits.
Transient Deregulation of Canonical Wnt Signaling in Developing Pyramidal Neurons Leads to Dendritic Defects and Impaired Behavior.
Progenitor Hyperpolarization Regulates the Sequential Generation of Neuronal Subtypes in the Developing Neocortex.
Videos
Contact
Faculté de médecine
Université de Genève
Email: Jozsef.Kiss@unige.ch