#Facultyseminars: Rejuvenating aged stem cells: therapeutic strategies to extend health and lifespan

Aging is associated with a global decline in stem cell function. To date, several strategies have been proposed to rejuvenate aged stem cells: most of these result in the functional improvement of the tissue where the stem cells reside, but the impact on the lifespan of the whole organism has been less clearly established. Our most recent work dealing with interventions that improve the regenerative capacity of aged hematopoietic stem cells in mice underscores that somatic stem cell rejuvenation represents a strategy to improve tissue homeostasis upon aging. Moreover, we present important evidence that rejuvenating hematopoietic stem cells might have the potential to affect health span and lifespan of the whole organism.

Hosted by Jordi Guiu – Cell plasticity and regeneration group

Carolina Florian received her PhD in 2008 from the University of Milan (Italy) where she trained in neuroendocrinology investigating mechanisms of neuroblastoma migration and invasion. Afterwards, she moved to the University of Ulm (Germany) for her postdoctoral training (2009-2015) on hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cell biology. During the postdoc, she also trained as visiting scientist (2011-2012) at the Experimental Hematology Department of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (Cincinnati, USA).

In 2016, Dr. Florian was awarded an Emmy Noether grant (DFG) to lead her independent research group on Epigenetics of Stem Cell Aging at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Ulm (Germany). In 2018, she moved to the Program of Regenerative Medicine at IDIBELL.  (Barcelona, Spain) as group leader. In 2023, she became ICREA Research Professor (ICREA).