NEXT TALK: Next talk 31st of October, 7pm - Sesonal mood disorders
Cittie Of Yorke, 22 High Holborn, WC1V 6BN
"The Brain in your belly"
Stem cells to repair the gut nervous system. 2014/04/29
Did you know that also the gut has its own and distinct nervous system? It’s so called “second brain” is involved in the regulation and coordination of the gut activity. Numerous developmental disorders and diseases can result in a loss or absence of these neurons within the gut, causing severe or life threatening gut motility problems. Surprisingly, there are few cures for these types of disorders, and doctors can only manage patients for prolonged periods of time. There is therefore a need for new, effective treatments. A very promising and novel way to treat these patients is to obtain stem cells from the gut and use them to replace the missing or damaged neurones and thus restore normal gut activity. Again, regenerative medicine seems to be hold the promise to cure developmental diseases.
Dr. Alan Burns
Alan Burns obtained his DPhil at the University of Ulster. He subsequently did his post-doc in Nevada where he did important work and discoveries on the gastrointestinal tract. A second post-doctoral position in Prof. Nicole Le Douarin’s laboratory in Paris established his career on development of the enteric nervous system from neural crest-derived precursors. There followed a brief faculty appointment at the University of Ulster before moving to University College London (UCL) Institute of Child Health as senior lecturer and Principal Investigator in 2001, where his group is mainly based. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary appointment as associate professor in the Department of Clinical Genetics at the Erasmus MC.
