Killam Seminar Series: Aging and inflammation as causes for remyelination failure and disease progression in MS
The Killam Seminar Series presents Aging and inflammation as causes for remyelination failure and disease progression in MS.
Registration (virtual) available here.
Link to view virtually. If you would like to send in a question for the speaker, fill in this form.
To attend in person, register here
Speaker: Tanja Kuhlmann, PhD
Professor, Neuropathology, Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital Münster, Germany
Abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most frequent demyelinating disease in the central nervous system. MS disease courses present a variable combination of relapse driven disease activity and disease progression independent of relapses resulting in disability accumulation. Although the relapse driven disease activity is highly amenable to therapeutic interventions, disease progression still cannot be prevented. Remyelination, the formation of new myelin sheaths after a demyelinating event, is an endogenous repair process and promotion of remyelination represents a promising new treatment approach to stop disease progression. In my presentation I discuss how inflammation and aging impairs oligodendroglial functions and remyelination and how these factors contribute to disease progression in MS.
Bio: Dr. Tanja Kuhlmann studied medicine at the University of Göttingen, Germany where she received her medical degree in 1998. She specialized in neuropathology and worked as medical resident and research fellow in different neuropathological departments in Germany and at McGill, Canada in the research groups of Dr. Jack Antel and Dr. Alan Peterson. In 2008, she became senior consultant and associate professor, Institute of Neuropatholohgy at the University Hospital Münster, Germany and in 2020 part-time adjunct professor, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University. Her key research interests are mechanisms leading to axonal and oligodendroglial pathology in demyelinating diseases. In recent years, she focused her research on iPSC technology and the derivation of human CNS cells from iPSC to study disease mechanisms. She has published several publications in well-known international journals on the topic of MS pathology, especially on oligodendroglial loss and remyelination as well as studies using iPSC-derived oligodendrocytes and neurons to understand disease mechanisms in demyelinating and neurodegenerative diseases.
Supported by the generosity of the Killam Trusts , The Neuro’s Killam Seminar series hosts outstanding guest speakers.
