Andrew Yoo, PhD
Professor
Department of Developmental Biology
WashU Medicine

Genetics

Andrew Yoo, PhD

Talk Title: Neuronal reprogramming of human somatic cells and modeling of late-onset neurodegeneration

Host: Dr. Susan Dutcher

Abstract: Ectopic expression of brain-enriched microRNAs, miR-9/9* and miR-124, in non-neural somatic cells can induce robust chromatin reconfiguration and cell fate conversion to neurons. Because of the nature of this direct conversion, the reprogrammed human neurons capture many aspects of brain aging. I will discuss our most updated understanding of the neuronal conversion process and how these reprogrammed human neurons are deployed to model late-onset neurodegeneration.