Theme：Repopulation and replacement: a tale of two microglia

Host：Dr. Peng Bo

Time：26th May, 2021, 10:00-11:40

Location: Room 202, Med-X Research Institute, Xuhui Campus, SJTU

Abstract: 

Microglia are important immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Dysfunctions of gene-deficient microglia contribute to the development and progression of multiple CNS diseases. Microglia replacement by nonself cells has been proposed to treat microglia-associated disorders. However, some attempts have failed due to low replacement efficiency, such as with the traditional bone marrow transplantation approach. In this study, we develop three efficient strategies for microglia replacement: microglia replacement by bone marrow transplantation (mrBMT), microglia replacement by peripheral blood (mrPB), and microglia replacement by microglia transplantation (mrMT). mrBMT and mrPB allow microglia-like cells to efficiently replace resident microglia in the whole CNS. On the other hand, mrMT achieves microglia replacement in brain regions of interest. In summary, the present study offers effective tactics for microglia replacement with diverse application scenarios, which potentially opens up a window on treating microglia-associated CNS disorders.

Biography: 

Dr. Bo Peng is an awardee of the Excellent Young Scholar Grant of NSFC. He obtained his bachelor degree of biotechnology in 2008 at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He then studied neurophysiology at Institute of Neuroscience at Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2008 to 2011. After that, he investigated retinal degenerative disorders at The University of Hong Kong and obtained his Ph.D. degree in neuroscience at 2015. After that, Dr. Bo Peng joined Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology at Chinese Academy of Sciences as an associate professor and established his own lab. In 2019, Dr. Bo Peng moved to Fudan University as a professor.