Juliët van Iersel

Short CV

Research

Pathologically, it is now well accepted that white (WM) and grey matter (GM) are affected during the disease process in the central nervous system of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. In both WM lesions and GM lesions, there is loss of myelin, and the axons and synapses are damaged. However, the influx and presence of leukocytes in active WM lesions is relatively absent in GM lesions, as shown in WM and GM lesions in human post-mortem material of patients with MS. Interesting, there is hardly any overlap in microglial regulated genes between WM and GM lesions, hinting at a different pathological mechanism to lesion formation in MS.

This project is a collaboration between Anne-Marie van Dam (Amsterdam UMC) and Vivi Heine (CNCR, CTG). Using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology, we aim to assess human microglial gene expression, morphology and function in a WM- versus GM-like environment. We make hiPSC-derived WM and GM astrocyte subtypes to mimic the WM and GM environments of the brain in a dish and establish in vitro models with iPSC-derived microglia and neurons that represent complex neuron/axon-glia interactions in the absence and presence of MS-relevant inflammatory stimuli.