Jun
Guest Lecture with Giacomo Masserdotti - 'Glia in Transition: Direct Neuronal Reprogramming Across Regions and Lineages'
The Lund Stem Cell Center is pleased to welcome Dr. Giacomo Masserdotti, Group Leader, Institute for Stem Cell Research, Helmholtz Munich (Germany), for a guest lecture in June. Researchers, students, and staff at Lund University are welcome to attend this event, which takes place in conjunction with the PhD defense of Christina-Anastasia Stamouli, supervised by Associate Professor Daniella Ottosson.
Event Details
Speaker: Giacomo Masserdotti
Talk Title: “Glia in Transition: Direct Neuronal Reprogramming Across Regions and Lineages"
Chair: Daniella Ottosson, Associate Professor, Lund University
When: 04 June 2026 | 15:15 - 16:30
Where: BMC I 1345 Falck-Hillarp, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University
Participants are welcome to join for fika 15 minutes before the lecture, allowing time for informal networking and discussion.
About the Speaker
Giacomo Masserdotti
Group Leader, Institute for Stem Cell Research, Helmholtz Munich (Germany)
Giacomo Masserdotti is intruigued by the concepts of cell identity and plasticity. His research investigates the molecular mechanisms driving the direct reprogramming of differentiated mouse and human cells into functional neurons, aiming at a comprehensive understanding of the conversion process with the final aim of generating new fully function neurons. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies — including single-cell multiomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and high-content imaging — Giacomo’s lab aims to understand the extent to which the identity of differentiated cells can be manipulated to generate new neurons that are functionally and molecularly similar to those present in the adult healthy brain.
Giacomo Masserdotti received his PhD in molecular and cellular biology at the University San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. He joined Götz’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2009 and started to work in the new field of direct neuronal reprogramming. Since then, he has contributed to elucidating the transcriptional mechanisms triggered the forced expression of specific transcription factors, identifying hurdles that prevent successful conversion.
Since 2024, Giacomo is group leader at the Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISF) and is expanding his interest to organelle organization, heterogeneity and their changes during the conversion of differentiated cells into functional neurons.
About Christina-Anastasia Stamouli's PhD Defense
On 05 June, 2026 at 15:00 Lund University doctoral student, Christina-Anastasia Stamouli, will defend her dissertation titled 'Generation of Human Subtype-Specific Interneurons for Therapeutic Replacement and Disease Modelling.'
About the event
Location:
BMC I 1345 Falck-Hillarp
Target group:
Researchers, scientists, students at Lund University
Language:
in English
Contact:
Claire [dot] Mckay [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se