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SUMMARY:Neuro-X seminar: Prof Tim O'Shea - Engineering astrocytes to promo
 te wound repair and modulate foreign body responses in the CNS
DTSTART:20261009T110000
DTEND:20261009T120000
DTSTAMP:20261006T162445Z
UID:4c8b19978449edfdd2e7ded0e74b431b90ca003177cb61ea2062aa8e
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Tim O'Shea\nAstrocytes are the predominant glial cells in the 
 mammalian central nervous system (CNS) and play essential roles in maintai
 ning neural circuit activity and tissue homeostasis. In response to CNS in
 sult\, including traumatic injury or implantation of a medical device\, as
 trocytes undergo a conserved\, temporally regulated reprogramming that res
 hapes their prioritized functions to protect adjacent neural tissue. The n
 ature and extent of astrocyte reprogramming critically influences outcomes
  after CNS insult. For example\, regeneration after traumatic CNS injury i
 n adult mammals is limited by local responding astrocytes lacking sufficie
 nt self-renewal capacity. By contrast\, the CNS of neonate (newborn) mamma
 ls possesses exceptional parenchymal repair capacity owing to immature ast
 rocytes with elevated proliferative and migratory potential. In the contex
 t of an implanted medical device\, the spatial extent of astrocyte reprogr
 amming and how impacted astrocytes respond to any further device micromoti
 on\, latent infection\, or other persistent device-derived stimuli\, dicta
 tes device performance and longevity. Engineering astrocyte responses to p
 romote targeted functional gains while preserving key capabilities of heal
 thy neural tissue astrocytes will be critical to enabling effective neural
  regeneration therapies and improving long-term performance of implanted d
 evices. In this talk\, I will outline our emerging understanding of how ad
 ult astrocytes adaptively reprogram in response to CNS injury and implante
 d foreign bodies\, drawing insights from innovative astrocyte-specific tra
 nscriptomic bioassays. I will also provide an overview of biomaterial and 
 cell-grafting strategies that we are exploring to direct astrocyte respons
 es in preclinical models of stroke\, spinal cord injury\, and foreign body
  responses.\n\nBio:\nDr. Timothy O’Shea\, PhD is an Assistant Professor 
 in the Biomedical Engineering department at Boston University (BU). Tim gr
 ew up in Brisbane\, Australia and completed a Bachelor of Medical Engineer
 ing (First Class Honours) and a Masters in Engineering Management at Queen
 sland University of Technology (QUT) before moving to the US for graduate 
 school. He completed his PhD study in Medical Engineering and Medical Phys
 ics within the collaborative Health Sciences and Technology program of the
  Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wher
 e we conducted PhD thesis research with Institute Professor Robert Langer.
  As a Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurobiology at UCLA\, he worked with Profess
 ors Michael Sofroniew (Neurobiology) and Timothy Deming (Bioengineering) d
 eveloping and testing novel bioengineering tools to study biological mecha
 nisms involved in CNS injury and repair as well as the CNS foreign body re
 sponse to implants. Since Fall 2020 he has been leading the Glia Engineeri
 ng Lab at BU where he has received numerous awards including the Maximizin
 g Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from NIH and grants from several sp
 inal cord injury research foundations such as Craig H Neilsen\, Paralyzed 
 Veterans of America\, Bryon Reisch\, and Wings for Life.
LOCATION:B1-6 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==B1%206%20272.043 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/62394730036?pwd=jz0K4NPrEtbqswaGBRIOJ0Kf64PwYm.1
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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