Visit of Prof. Zhigang He’s laboratory

From October 5th to 14th Prof. Jan Schwab was visiting the research laboratory of Prof. Zhigang He, in the Department of Neuroscience of the Children’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA). To date three projects were funded by Wings for Life, all of them addressing signalling mechanisms of axonal regeneration. Prof. He is addressing the impact of the combinatory modulation of two major intracellular pathways cAMP and PKC on axon growth in vivo. In addition, he has revealed the mTOR pathway as crucial for axon growth yielding a 100-fold more potent axon growth responses as compared with for example cAMP modulation alone. Following up on these pioneering results after injury of the optical nerve, he progressed by testing the hypothesis, whether the blockade of the mTOR antagonist PTEN results in enhanced regeneration following experimental spinal cord injury (SCI). Here, Prof. He demonstrated a striking extent of axonal regeneration after SCI compared to “normal” (wild type) controls. The next step will be to test the functionality of those newly regenerated axons. In contrast, Dr. Liu reported about the pleiotrophic growth factor termed TGF-β which is synthesized at the glial scar and is impeding axonal growth. Sorting out negative from positive signalling pathways may provide specific and effective tools to “switch on” axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury.

Prof. Zhigang He and Dr. Kai Liu are working at the Molecular Regeneration Laboratory, in the Department of Neuroscience, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.

More details on their respective projects can be found in the Grants section of the Wings for Life homepage.