Alerie Guzmán
Research Focus
Our laboratory aims to understand how the interaction between inflammation and adult brain stem cells, known as oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, regulates myelin formation, maintenance and regeneration in health and disease.
Interaction between inflammation and adult brain stem cells
Although both, inflammation and myelin alterations have extensively been described in a number of neurological disorders (e.g. multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders…), little is known about how the bidirectional crosstalk between inflammation and oligodendrocyte lineage cells, governs myelin maintenance and repair.
Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms
We are particularly interested in elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which acute and chronic inflammation modulate oligodendrocyte progenitor cell response to damage, with the aim of identifying novel therapeutic targets to promote myelin regeneration.
We believe that a better understanding of the intrinsic, local, and systemic environments that modulate oligodendrocyte progenitor cell response in an inflammatory context is essential to understand why myelin regeneration fails in most neurological disorders. To do so, in the laboratory, we combine in vitro and in vivo experimental modelling, transgenic and pharmacological manipulation and “omics” approaches, to identify targets that either limit neuroinflammation and/or boost myelin repair, and could benefit a number of patients suffering from inflammatory and demyelinating disorders.
