Vesicular Conversations in Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s research is centralised on the idea of finding ways to understand dopamine neuron degeneration and to prevent their loss. While much research is focused on dopamine neurones themselves, it is important to note that they do not exist alone in the human brain and receive and require many signals and molecules for support and function from other cell types, most importantly astrocytes and other glial cell types. However, due to the complexities of modelling the human brain for research, the exact mechanisms of communication between neurones and glia in the human brain and whether these signals are supportive or destructive in neurodegeneration is poorly understood.

The focus of the Lang group’s research involves developing simple co-culture and complex microfluidic co-culture methods of human induced-pluripotent stem cell-derived neurones and glia to understand communication between these cell types in health and neurodegenerative disease. The ultimate aim being, to understand whether a lack of glial support or active destruction is contributing to neuronal loss in neurodegeneration and to find ways in which we can boost or inhibit these signals to therapeutically to promote neurone survival.
Date: 24 November 2025, 13:30
Venue: Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Speaker: Dr Charmaine Lang (OPDC, DPAG, University of Oxford)
Organiser: Ivan Peckar (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: cortex@nexus.ox.ac.uk
Host: Cortex Club (University of Oxford)
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: No cost
Audience: Public
Editor: Garry Cherepakhov