Hosted by Cardiff University's School of Medicine
Abstract: The brain has long been considered immune-privileged, but recent data indicate that T lymphocytes access the brain and interact with neural cells. The talk will describe the interaction of the adaptive immune system with neural stem cells in different states of activation.
Biography: Isabel Fariñas is Professor of Cell Biology and director of the Molecular Neurobiology Lab at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the University of Valencia (BIOTECMED).
Her research focuses on the regulation of neural stem cell (NCS) properties by their niche, especially their quiescent state and their transitions to activation. Her group described the first "angiocrine" factor, the so-called PEDF, whose actions contributed to establishing that blood vessels are a key element of neurogenic niches. Her group has also contributed to establishing the concept of quiescence as an actively regulated state by identifying the actions of neurotrophin-3 as an angiocrine pro-quiescence factor, to uncover transcriptional functions of cell cycle regulatory molecules in the maintenance of NSCs, to define the role of cell adhesion in the regulation of their quiescence, or to uncover how neural stem cells respond to peripheral inflammation, among others. She has been a member of the boards of the Spanish Society of Neuroscience, the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and the International Society of Differentiation and is now board member of the Spanish Society of Developmental Biology. She has also served as president of the Life Sciences panel of the Spanish Granting Agency for the last 6 years. She is an EMBO fellow and is an ERC Advanced Grant recipient 2023.
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