Sofia Grade

Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Vienna, Austria

Sofia Grade is a biologist and group leader at the IMBA in Vienna. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Coimbra and the Laval University in Québec. Her PhD research has focused on the neural stem cell response to brain disease, including stroke and demyelination. She studied stem cell differentiation and neuroblast migration, utilizing in vivo and in vitro models of these neurological conditions. During her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Magdalena Götz, at the LMU Munich, she worked in cell transplantation for cell replacement in brain disease. She addressed a fundamental question in stem cell therapy – whether transplanted neurons can integrate into complex brain networks. Additionally, she contributed to advances in our understanding of stem cell niche regulation and myelin replacement. In 2020 she started her own lab that seeks to understand neural circuit remodeling in disease and to exploit intervention strategies for brain repair.

Daniel Tornero

University of Barcelona, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science

Daniel Tornero has a PhD in Neurosciences from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) and more than twenty years of experience in the field. His scientific interest has been oriented towards the exploration of new strategies for the study and treatment of neurological disorders, in particular ischemic stroke. He spent most of his postdoctoral time at Lund Stem Cell Center (Sweden), where he developed cell therapies based on human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for ischemic stroke. Since 2019, Daniel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona and Head of the Laboratory of Neural Stem Cells and Brain Damage. His projects are focused on the study of functional neuronal integration in cell therapies applied to brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. He also participates in projects related to the development of models, both in vivo and in vitro, that help to explore neurodegenerative processes and diseases that affect. neurodevelopment. 

Sergio Gascón Jiménez

Cajal Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology

Sergio Gascón carried out his PhD studies (Institute for Biomedical Research-Alberto Sols, Madrid) on the topic of glutamate NMDA receptors and other interacting postsynaptic proteins that are involved in cerebrovascular diseases. During this time, he carried out research stays at the previous laboratory of Peter Scheiffele (Columbia University, New York), to develop lentiviral vectors for the efficient gene expression in neurons. After completing his PhD (2007, Autónoma University of Madrid), Sergio moved to the laboratory of Magdalena Götz (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich), where he focused on the neuronal reprogramming field. Sergio participated in several articles demonstrating that astroglia can be reprogrammed into neurons and identified metabolic constraints blocking the conversion process. Moreover, Sergio’s research also addressed fundamental questions regarding neurogenesis and neuronal connectivity. Currently, Sergio’s research team, at the Cajal Institute-CSIC (Madrid) focuses on new strategies to improve neuronal reprogramming and to develop human models of brain diseases invitro.