Partners: Universität Konstanz (UKN)

The principal investigator (Marcel Leist) holds an endowed chair for Alternative In Vitro Methods to Animal Experimentation, at the University of Konstanz (UKN), with the goal to develop alternative methods in the area of central nervous system toxicity and degeneration. The group has a long track record in the isolation of neuronal precursors, characterisation of stem cells, neuronal death, glial activation, development of new screening systems for toxicity of pharmaceuticals, and will characterise the developmental toxicity related to neural development in differentiating ES cultures and contribute to development/validation of in vitro, ES-based novel assays of drug candidate neurotoxicity.

Key staff involved in the project

Marcel Leist, Prof. PhD, former Head of Neurobiology in the company H. Lundbeck (Denmark) has vast experience in screen systems development, characterisation of toxicity of drug candidates, primary cell (human and rodent) and stem cell based assay development. Since 2006: Professor and chairman for Alternative in Vitro Methods to Animal Experimentation (Konstanz, D). Marcel has over 100 publications on neurodegeneration, cell death, and neurotrophin biology.

Suzanne Kadereit, PhD, was founding head of the national stem cell bank of Singapore, brings experience in culturing and expanding stem cells (including hESC), and standardisation of culture methods. She has furthermore experience in stem cell characterisation by flow cytometry.