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SUMMARY:Building advanced neuromuscular organoids to study human developme
 nt and disease - Mina Gouti. Max-Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine
DTSTART:20240906T150000Z
DTEND:20240906T160000Z
UID:TALK219847@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Kirsty Shepherd
DESCRIPTION:Locomotion results from the interaction between muscles and th
 e nervous system. Dysfunction of such cells results in deadly diseases suc
 h as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
 . Neuromuscular diseases often show regional selectivity but the underlyin
 g reasons remain obscure due to the lack of a suitable human model system.
  We have recently used human pluripotent stem cell derived axial stem cell
 s\, the building blocks of the posterior body\, to simultaneously generate
  spinal cord neurons and skeletal muscle cells that self-organize in 3D to
  generate neuromuscular organoids (NMOs). NMOs contain functional neuromus
 cular junctions supported by terminal Schwann cells. They contract and dev
 elop central pattern generator-like neuronal circuits (Martins et al\, Cel
 l Stem Cell\, 2020). We are currently applying NMOs to study the early dev
 elopment of the human neuromuscular system and to model neuromuscular dise
 ases. This approach promises to uncover the sequence of events and provide
  greater insight into the mechanisms that lead to specific diseases by tac
 kling previously inaccessible features of neuromuscular junction biology.\
 n
LOCATION:West Hub\, West 2
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