What is the best way to treat diseases of the central nervous system?
How can drugs used for treating e.g. dementia bypass the blood-brain barrier? This is one of the questions that Morten Schallburg Nielsen, new professor of neuroscience at Aarhus University's Department of Biomedicine, is particularly focused on answering.
We live longer than ever before, and due to increased life expectancy, more people will experience diseases in the central nervous system such as dementia. The blood-brain barrier, which separates brain tissue from blood, is designed to protect our brain; however, while doing this, it also makes it difficult to transport drugs into the brain.
Professor Morten Schallburg and his research team are therefore trying to find molecular systems that can be 'tricked' into bringing new drugs across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain to fight the diseases. Their study involves the use of models of the blood-brain barrier based on cells from pigs, while they also work with human stem cell models.
Contact
Professor, PhD, MSc Morten Schallburg Nielsen
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Mobile: (+45) 2899 2387
Email: mn@biomed.au.dk