#IDIBELLseminars: Neural stem cell encounters with the immune system

Subsets of somatic stem cells (SCs) can spend long periods in quiescence, but the molecular regulation of this state as well as the reversible transitions between dormancy and activation have started to be understood only recently. Furthermore, subsets of non-cycling SCs can be found at varying depths of quiescence. Recent refinements of the procedures to isolate neural (N) SCs from the adult mouse subependymal zone (SEZ) by fluorescence-activated cell sorting together with deep sequencing and cycling analysis now allows to recognize NSCs in three states: quiescent (q), quiescent-primed (p), and activated (a). The combination of the molecular knowledge about these states with ways to label quiescent NSCs since mid-gestation by in utero electroporation is helping unravel physical interactions between quiescent NSCs and their niche with impact on cell transitions.

Hosted by Angel Raya

Professor in Cell Biology and head of the Molecular Neurobiology Unit at the University of Valencia (Spain). Her lab focuses on the niche biology of adult neural stem cells. She has been a member of the boards of the Spanish Societies of Neuroscience and of Gene and Cell Therapy, and the International Society of Differentiation and is now board member of the Spanish Society of Developmental Biology. Her group belongs to the Center for Biomedical Research in Network on Neurodegenerative Diseases, the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the University of Valencia, and is Prometheus Group of Excellence of the Valencian Community. She was appointed EMBO member in 2013 and chosen by the Fundación Botín-Banco Santander to be part of its science program in 2014. She is currently chair of the