Here is some information about the team leaders (the Principal Investigators) of the AXREGEN project.

Dr Andreas Bosio is a Research Director of Miltenyi Biotec, a company that specialises in separating different kinds of cells before they are used for grafting or other clinical or experimental purposes. Their products are widely used.

Professor Patrik Brundin (University of Lund) is particularly interested in using grafted cells to repair the brain in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. He was the cell biologist responsible for the tissue used in the first Swedish clinical trials with neural transplantation in humans.

Professor Harold Cremer (Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille) is interested in the way that the brain makes new nerve cells, both during development and in adult life. His lab  focuses on the way that these new cells find their way to the right part of the nervous system and how they connect there to other neurons.

Professor James Fawcett (University of Cambridge)  is director of the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair. He has special interests in repairing the spinal cord after traumatic damage. His lab has made significant advances, and clinical trials resulting from this work are in process.

Professor Joe Herbert (University of Cambridge) is the coordinator of the AXREGEN programme.   His research is on areas of the adult brain that can continue to make new nerve cells throughout life, and on clinical depression.  The two may be linked.

Professor Leszek Kaczmarek (Nencki Institute, Warsaw) heads the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology.   He is interested in the way that brain structure and function can alter (called ‘neural plasticity’), and the regulation of nerve cell death.  This process underlies learning and memory formation.

Professor Xavier Navarro (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) heads the research group on Neuroplasticity and Regeneration of the Institute of Neurosciences.  He is particularly interested in improving recovery after damage to peripheral nerves (eg those in the limbs), using a variety of methods.

Dr Jean-Chretien Noreel is  one of the founders of Pharmaxon, a biotechnology company that is developing new methods of improving the mobility of nerve cells, thus improving brain repair.   He is head of their ‘Discovery’ section.

Professor Ferdinando Rossi (University of Turin) leads a group studying methods of repairing the damaged cerebellum (part of the brain involved in movement and balance) using stem cells and other therapies.

Professor Martin Schwab (ETH and University of Zurich) works on chemicals in the brain that encourage or inhibit the growth or re-arrangement of new nerve tissue after brain or spinal cord damage.

Professor Piergiorgio Strata (National Institute of Neuroscience, Turin) is particularly interested in chemicals that inhibit the function and electrical activity of the nervous system, and help to regulate patterns of development.

Professor Eva Sykova (Institute of Experimental Medicine ASCR, Prague) studies the way that the environment of nerve cells contributes to their health and survival, and the use of stem cells and artificial materials to help re-growth in damaged parts of the brain and spinal cord.

Professor Joost Verhaagen (Free University of Amsterdam) is head of the Workgroup on Neuroregeneration.  He is working on the use of gene and cell therapies to repair the damaged nervous system.