Yves Barde is Professor of Neurobiology and works at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. He is a developmental neurobiologist working on growth factors for neurons. The lack of suitable in vitro assay systems to study neurons of the central nervous system (CNS) led his group to use mouse of embryonic stem (ES) cells to generate neurons. Unlike previously thought It turned out that ES cells can be converted in vitro into defined and homogenous neuronal progenitors that go on to differentiate into essentially one population of CNS neurons. This system provides a novel opportunity to dissect mechanisms relevant to the CNS, both during normal development and in disease. For example, it allowed the demonstration that the lack of a single transcription factor in ES cells is sufficient to entirely shift the type of neurons generated by ES cell-derived progenitors. It also led to the discovery of a new mechanism causing axonal degeneration.
Recently, the group started using human embryonic stem cells to test whether uniform populations of human neurons can be generated with the techniques developed with mouse ES cells. This would open the possibility to study human neurons in vitro, both during normal development and in diseases. Not all CNS diseases in human can be adequately mimicked in the mouse and cultured human neurons derived from ES cells would also offer a unique opportunity to generate human proteins expressed in a relevant cellular context, including neurotransmitter receptors and transporters, the typical targets of drugs acting in the CNS.
The group has numerous collaborations with other scientists working in Basel, as well as with Magdalena Götz at the GSF in Neuherberg and scientists at the Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried. It is also part of 2 European Networks dedicated to the use of stem cells, ESTOOLS ( www.estools.eu) and EuTRACC ( www.eutracc.eu). For additional details, see http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/barde/index.html
Original publications related to stem cells
- Bibel M, Richter J, Schrenk K, Tucker KL, Staiger V, Korte M, Götz M. and Barde Y-A. (2004). Differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into a defined neuronal lineage. Nature Neurosciences 7:1003-1009.
- Plachta N, Bibel M, Tucker KL. and Barde Y-A. (2004). Developmental potential of defined neuronal progenitors derived from mouse embryonic stem cells. Development 131:5449-5456.
- Bibel M, Richter J, Lacroix E. and Barde Y-A. (2007). Generation of a defined and uniform population of CNS progenitors and neurons from mouse embryonic stem cells. Nature Protocols 2:1034-1043.
- Plachta N, Annaheim C, Bissière S, Lin S, Rüegg M, Hoving S, Müller D, Poirier F, Bibel M. and Barde Y-A. (2007). Identification of a lectin causing the degeneration of neuronal processes using engineered embryonic stem cells. Nature Neuroscience 10:712-719.
- Nikoletopoulou V, Plachta N, Allen ND, Pinto L, Götz M. and Barde Y-A. (2007). Neurotrophin receptor-mediated death of misspecified neurons generated from embryonic stem cells lacking Pax6. Cell Stem Cell 1:529-540.
- Rauskolb S, Zagrebelsky M, Dreznjak A, Deogracias R, Matsumoto T, Wiese S, Erne B, Sendtner M, Schaeren-Wiemers N, Korte M. and Barde Y-A. (2010). Global deprivation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the CNS reveals an area-specific requirement for dendritic growth. J Neuroscience 30:1739-49.
Reviews related to stem cells
- Götz M. and Barde Y-A. (2005). Radial Glial Cells Defined and Major Intermediates between Embryonic Stem Cells and CNS Neurons. Neuron 46:369-372.
- Affolter M. and Barde Y-A. (2007). Self-renewal in the fly kidney. Developmental Cell 13:321-322.
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