Albin Sandelin
Engineering microglia to serve as a cell therapeutic in Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is caused by the gradual loss of brain cells that make dopamine, which leads to increasing patient debilitation and ultimately death. During this time, harmful proteins build up with the affected cells and cause inflammation, which makes it harder for replacement cells to survive.
Current treatments that transplant lab-grown brain cells often fail because the new cells struggle to integrate and can be damaged by the hostile environment.We propose a strategy that reprogram brain immune cells, naturally able to home to these inflamed regions, into dopamine producing neurons capable of replacing those lost in Parkinson’s disease.
Our genetic circuit-based screen will help efficiently drive this conversion process and then, upon neuronal maturation, express a gene that shields the new neurons from Parkinson’s associated stress. By converting the brain’s own immune cells into functional, stress-resistant neurons at sites of degeneration, this project aims to establish the foundation for a self-homing regenerative cell therapy for addressing Parkinson’s disease.
