Mertens Lab
Neural Aging Laboratory
Institute of Molecular Biology
University of Innsbruck
OUR RESEARCH
Reprogramming of Human Skin into Brain Cells
to understand Age-Related Diseases
"We apply human reprogramming technologies including directly induced neurons (iNs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and stem cell differentiation based on skin cells from Alzheimer patients and other age-related diseases, to develop the next generation of human disease models."
"By combining basic cellular neuroscience approaches with sequencing-based big data biology, the goal of our lab is to identify the molecular key players of human biological aging to enable the development of new treatment strategies for age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease.“
OUR TEAM
JEROME MERTENS
Jerome is Assistant Professor at the University of Innsbruck in Tyrol, Austria, and Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. His research focus is to better understand the interface between the biology of aging and neurodegeneration. His patient-centric approach combines human cell reprogramming technologies such as iPSC differentiation, direct neuronal conversion (iN), and 3D culture models with unbiased multi-omics technologies and functional neuroscience. Jerome completed his PhD in the lab of Oliver Brüstle (University of Bonn) and Philipp Koch, and his postdoc in Rusty Gage’s lab.
Lucy earned her BSc in Health Biology and MSc in Biomedicine at Autónoma University Madrid. Her research in Madrid focussed on gene therapy using iPSC lung organoids, and iPSC modeling in Jun Yao's lab at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Lucy is interested in integrating fate reprogramming technologies with 3D cultures, and age-related diseases. She's always happy, smiley, loves socializing, and always open for any kind of group activities.
♪♪ Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría why cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena
Hey Macarena!!!!! ♫♫
Flo studies molecular biology at the University of Innsbruck and he is our lab manager. He is also a certified locksmith and police officer. After completion of his BSc, Flo is interested in specializing deeper into human biology, with a special interest in neuroscience.
PhD student AGE_REG doctoral school
MSc University of Lübeck, Germany
BSc University of Erlangen, Germany
MSc student
Dr. Otto Seibert Fellow
MSc student
Larissa is the first PhD student that joined Jerome's lab, and her focus is on metabolic alterations in Alzheimer’s Disease. She received her BSc in Molecular Medicine from the Medical University of Innsbruck and her MSc in Biomedicine from Lund University in Sweden. She is currently a student enrolled with the SPIN doctoral school, actively collaborates with Angelo D'Alessandro's lab at UC Denver, and enjoys frequent research stays at the Salk Institute. In her free time, Larissa loves to spend her time outdoors in the mountains, going for hikes or paragliding, and enjoying a good beer.
Joe is PhD student in the Neuroscience graduate program at UC San Diego and a joint member of Mertens lab and the Gage lab at the Salk Institute. Joe received his BSc from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his MSc from the University of Kentucky. Joe's research focuses on the induction of neuronal senescence during aging and neurodegenerative disease. Outside of the lab, Joe enjoys hiking, fishing, rock climbing and any other excuse to spend time outdoors.
ALUMNI
TIM CIESIOLKA
BSc student 2019-2020
-> Roche Diagnostics
LUKAS C. MAASS
BSc student 2019
-> Roche Diagnostics
SANTIAGO ARDILES
Lab intern 2018-2019
-> MSc at Medical University Innsbruck
PUBLICATIONS
'Next‐generation disease modeling with direct conversion: a new path to old neurons’
L. Traxler, F. Edenhofer, and J. Mertens.
FEBS letters, Dec 2019
‘Take the shortcut–direct conversion of somatic cells into induced neural stem cells and their biomedical applications’
A. Erharter, S. Rizzi, J. Mertens, and F. Edenhofer.
FEBS letters, Dec 2019
‘Chemical modulation of transcriptionally enriched signaling pathways to optimize the conversion of fibroblasts into neurons’
J. R. Herdy, S.T. Schafer, Y. Kim, Z. Ansari, D. Zangwill, M. Ku, A.C.M. Paquola, H. Lee, J. Mertens#, and F.H. Gage#.
eLife, May 2019
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‘Human neurons to model aging: A dish best served old‘
L. Böhnke, L. Traxler, J. R. Herdy, and J. Mertens.
Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models, Feb 2019
‘Pathological priming causes developmental gene network heterochronicity in autistic subject-derived neurons‘
S.T. Schafer, A.C.M. Paquola, S. Stern, D. Gosselin, M. Ku, M. Pena, T.J.M. Kuret, M. Liyanage, A.A. Mansour, B.N. Jaeger, M.C. Marchetto, C.K. Glass, J. Mertens, and F.H. Gage.
Nature Neuroscience, Jan 2019
‘Aging in a dish: iPSC-derived and directly induced neurons for studying brain aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases'
J. Mertens, D. Reid, S. Lau, Y. Kim, and F. H. Gage.
Annual Reviews Genetics , Sep 2018
‘Mitochondrial aging defects emerge in directly reprogrammed human neurons due to their metabolic profile ‘
Y. Kim, X. Zheng, Z. Ansari, M.C. Bunnell, J.R. Herdy, L. Traxler, H. Lee, A.C.M. Paquola, C. Blithikioti, M. Ku, J.C.M. Schlachetzki, J. Winkler, F. Edenhofer, C.K. Glass, A.A. Paucar, B.N. Jaeger, S. Pham, L. Boyer, B.C. Campbell, T. Hunter, J. Mertens#, F.H. Gage#.
Cell Reports, May 2018