Nils Brose Can Autism Be Explained by Biological Causes and Hence Be Treated Medically?
Nils Brose is Director at the Department of Molecular Neurobiology of the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany. Brose completed his studies with a Master’s degree in Physiology from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Biology from the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. Brose’s fields of expertise are the molecular mechanisms of nerve cell development. As leader of the research group on molecular neurobiology, Brose researches synaptic cell adhesion proteins and how they influence neuropsychiatric diseases, such as autism spectrum disorders.
Area of Research
Molecular Neurobiology
since 2006
Honorary Professor of Biochemistry
University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Faculty of Biology
since 2002
Professor of Biochemistry
University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Faculty of Medicine
since 2001
1995-2001
Research Group Leader
Max Planck Society (more details)
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine
1993-1995
Postdoctoral Researcher
Howard Hughes Medical Institute und University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
1991-1993
Postdoctoral Researcher
Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA
1990-1991
1998
Habilitation
University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
1990
PhD in Biology
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
1987
Master in Physiology
University of Oxford
1981-1985
Studies in Biochemistry and Biology
University of Tübingen (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
Fellowships
- Fellow of "Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina" (since 2014)
- Fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) (since 2007)
- Heisenberg‐Stipendium der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (1998-2001)
- Helmholtz‐Stipendium im Fach Neurobiologie (1995-1997)
- E.P. Abraham Cephalosporin Fund Fees Scholarship, E.P. Abraham Cephalosporin Fund und Queen’s College, Oxford (1986)
- Florey European Scholarship am Queen’s College, Oxford (1986)
Prizes
- Gerhard Hess‐Preis der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (1997-2003)
© Maximilian Dörrbecker
Max Planck Society
"The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, putting it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned scientific journals are proof of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes – and many of those articles are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field." (Source)
Institute
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine
Research at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine focuses on the genetic, molecular, and cellular processes that control the formation and integrity of the nervous system and its malfunction in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. A particular emphasis is on neural development and function, signaling between nerve cells and neuroplasticity, and the complex functional and metabolic interplay between glial cells and neurons in the brain. Scientists at the institute study the basic biology of these processes - from the molecular and cellular to the systems level, and from mouse to man - and their perturbations in model diseases such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, leukodystrophies, schizophrenia, or autism. (Source: MPI for Experimental Medicine)
Map
Autism spectrum disorders are largely of genetic origin, and 5-10% of cases are currently known to be caused by a single gene mutation. Understanding the consequences of these mutations in detail can open the way for medical treatment. The study presented in this video focused on how a frequent mutation seen in patients with autism spectrum disorders causes the brain dysfunction that leads to the behavioral symptoms. Based on mice with the same genetic lesion that is known to cause autism spectrum disorder in human patients, mutant brains and nerve cells and the behavior of mutant mice were examined. The mice showed clear signs of autism related behavioral defects, and further analyses provided insights into the changes in brain function that are caused by the gene mutation, as NILS BROSE explains in this video. The corresponding data show that synapses of nerve cells that use the neurotransmitter GABA are particularly affected by the mutation. If these results can be confirmed to reflect the situation in the human body, there would be a chance to interfere with medication targeting GABAergic synapses.
LT Video Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10270
Perturbed Hippocampal Synaptic Inhibition and Gamma-Oscillations in a Neuroligin-4 Knockout Mouse Model of Autism
- Matthieu Hammer, Dilja Krueger-Burg, Liam Patrick Tuffy, Benjamin Hillman Cooper, Holger Taschenberger, Sarit Pati Goswami, Hannelore Ehrenreich, Peter Jonas, Frederique Varoqueaux, Jeong-Seop Rhee and Nils Brose
- Cell Reports
- Published in 2015
