🚨 PhD position in astrocyte physiology!
Join us in Amsterdam to explore how astrocytes dynamically regulate brain water flow!
Apply using the link below:
🧠🔬🌍
🔗 werkenbij.amsterdamumc.org/en/publicatie-1179368
#Neuroscience #PhD #Astrocytes #MLC #SUPERGLUE
Fresh from the lab!
In this new paper, PhD student Sven Kerst shows how phenotypes observed in isolated cell models for the leukodystrophy MLC are also observed in intact astrocytes in acute brain slices!
Glia | Neurobiology Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
It was a joy to write this perspective together with Marjo van der Knaap. Her deep knowledge of white matter disorders is truly exceptional!
And our paper shows how studying rare diseases can illuminate fundamental brain processes - with implications far beyond! 🧠✨
11/11 < the end >
Identifying the first pathological event in MS matters:
🧪 For better models - most current models are based on triggering an immune attack against myelin...
💊 For better therapies - remyelination is bound to fail if astrocytes can’t support it!!
10/11
This model fits well with beautiful neuropathology studies describing early astrocyte damage in MS lesions.
And with studies showing early myelin abnormalities (swelling, vacuoles, blisters; similar to what we see in MLC) which precede demyelination!
9/11
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23322421/
We propose a similar mechanism in MS: an immune attack on astrocyte endfeet - triggered by autoimmunity against GlialCAM - disrupts astrocyte homeostasis. Myelin damage follows secondarily, and is a consequence of loss of homeostatic support.
8/11
Genetic defects to these proteins in MLC disrupts endfoot function and disturbs ion and water homeostasis. As a consequence myelin swells and forms vacuoles - not from a direct attack, but because of loss of astrocytic support.
7/11
Astrocytes express GlialCAM as part of a protein complex that is present in the endfeet with which they enwrap blood vessels in the brain. This complex is crucial for brain ion and water homeostasis (and further consists of MLC1, Aquaporin-4 and GPRC5B).
6/11
GlialCAM may not sound familiar - but our lab @amsterdamleuko.bsky.social has studied this astrocyte protein for years in the context of a rare genetic disease called MLC (megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts), a childhood-onset white matter disorder (leukodystrophy).
5/11
In trying to fight EBV, the immune system may create antibodies that mistakenly target GlialCAM. Why? Because part of GlialCAM resembles an EBV protein - a case of molecular mimicry.
4/11
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A clue came in 2022: MS patients can develop antibodies against a protein called GlialCAM - triggered by infection with the very common Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Nearly all MS patients have had EBV before disease onset.
3/11
Most textbooks describe MS as an immune attack on the fatty myelin layer that insulates axons. But the hunt for a specific myelin antigen in MS hasn’t been very successful… So what’s going on?
2/11
Excited to share our latest paper!
We argue that in MS, the primary immune attack isn’t on myelin or myelinated axons — but on the ion & water homeostasis machinery in astrocyte endfeet.
A short thread on this new perspective
1/11
I’m very excited that NWO will fund our ENW-XL consortium grant ‘Superglue’!! The project will focus on astrocytes, the multifunctional glue cells that keep our brain working. Let’s see what we will discover 🤩 !!
www.nwo.nl/nieuws/64-mi...
We extended the deadline with a few days. Abstracts can be submitted until Dec 12.
PhD opportunity: If you're interested in how astrocytes and the meninges talk to each other and how this is affected in dementia come do your PhD with us in Edinburgh (cc: Karen Horsburgh and Ingo Schiessl)!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Nice shots showing open and close PIEZO ion channels both on slide and on arm!
Easy answer: there’s no such thing…
Hey folks! I got a tattoo of my beloved PIEZO ion channel on my arm! Now I can show how they activate (flatten) under pressure by flexing—Will add a bit of performance art to my science talks 🧪🧠.
My first post in the sky is a:
Job Alert!
We are looking for a PhD student to study astrocyte dysfunction in the rare neurological disease MLC. Looking for a challenge? See the job advertisement below!
werkenbij.amsterdamumc.org/en/vacatures...
Thanks!
Join me to do your PhD on aquaporins as part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership funded by BBSRC. Please get in touch if you are interested! The project is co-supervised by @kitchenphil.bsky.social
The deadline is 16th January 2025!
warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...
🌟PhD Opportunity in membrane biophysics!🌟
Fully-funded 4 year PhD studentship at @AstonAIME with @NaomiLPollock1 using neutron scattering at @isisneutronmuon to study lipid interactions with membrane proteins.
Apply now: www.aston.ac.uk/graduate-sch...
#PhDOpportunity #Biophysics
some great starter packs for the #glia, #astrocyte, #oligodendrocyte, #microglia, #neuro researcher: gliasky, astrocytesky, microglia
But if you also like interactions between celltypes, please help this starter pack get started. Maybe someone can connect all of us in a feed?
go.bsky.app/MHtJzeC
Would love te be added, thanks!
There are lots of us missing, but so many joining so quickly
Please do share, and comment below to be added
go.bsky.app/5f2V6L6
(microglia starter pack also here by @mancusorenzo.bsky.social - bsky.app/starter-pack...)
Would love to be added! Thanks for setting this up!
