New Podcast Episode. Going Out on a LIM: Rethinking the Role of LMX1A in Patterning Dopaminergic Neurons

This episode of The Stem Cell Report will discuss the process of directing stem cells to acquire the proper identity, an essential step in the development of effective and durable cell replacement therapies. Specifically, we will talk about the process of directing cells into a ventral mesencephalic dopaminergic fate for treating Parkinson’s disease. 

Guests

• Agnete Kirkeby is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen, a Principal Investigator with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine renew, and a Principal Investigator at the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine at Lund University. Professor Kirkeby led the preclinical development of a stem cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s Disease which was approved for a first-in-human clinical trial in Sweden. Agnete also co-chairs the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting Program Committee, the group responsible for planning the upcoming meeting this July in Hamburg, Germany. 

• Pedro Rifes received his PhD from the Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal and was a postdoctoral scholar in the Kirkeby Laboratory. He served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen and is currently a Project Manager at Bioneer A/S, a Danish specialty Contract Research Organization.  Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Drs Kirkeby and Rifes are authors of the recently published paper, Forced LMX1A expression induces dorsal neural fates and disrupts patterning of human embryonic stem cells into ventral midbrain dopaminergic neurons, in Stem Cell Reports.