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Christian Wetzel (Universität Regensburg) talked about mitochondrial malfunction and their involvement in the pathology of major
depression disorder (MDD). Skin fibroblasts derived from patients suffering from major  depressive disorder were used to determine the molecular
pathomechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction e.g. changes in the membrane potential, reduction of the function of the ATP-synthase upon hormonal or metabolic stress.

Dr. Ruth Beckervordersanderforth is an independent group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry, Emil-Fischer-Centre, FAU Erlangen. Since the beginning of her academic career, she has been working on astrocytes. Astrocytes are the major components of the hippocampal neurogenic niche. In the seminar, she discussed recent findings of her group on the determination of candidates of molecular regulators for astrocytes based on their internal morphological heterogeneity.

Prof. Dr. Beate Winner, Head of the Department of Stem Cell  Biology at the University Hospital, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, gave a talk about the role of the adaptive immune response in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. Within a translational project, they developed an autologous cell culture model using patient-derived and healthy control-derived hiPCS cells which were differentiated into midbrain neurons and corresponding T-lymphocytes from blood cells. IL-17 was identified as an important player in degeneration of midbrain neurons.