Dr Sebastian Lewandowski (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) will deliver a webinar to the Edinburgh Imaging Neuroimaging Sciences group on Tue 16 Jun 2020. Date: Tue 16 Jun 2020 Location: Webinar Title: "Perivascular fibroblast cells contribute to cerebrovascular remodeling & dynamics of ALS neurodegeneration" Abstract: Although the core symptoms of ALS feature rapid, age-dependent degeneration of motor neurons, we still know little about the cellular mechanisms that occur in the long presymptomatic phase. Our work shows that cerebral perivascular fibroblast cells become transcriptionally active long before onset of neuroinflammation & remodel perivascular spaces with specific collagen & chemokine proteins in ALS mouse models & sporadic ALS patients. Targeted plasma proteomics of 452 ALS patients showed that perivascular fibroblast specific proteins provide clinical tools that vastly outperform current standards of prediction for patient survival. We believe our results provide a novel conceptual framework to re-evaluate cellular contributions to etiology & dynamics of ALS neurodegeneration. Since enlarged perivascular spaces are repeatedly observed in aging, dementia & other neurological disorders, perivascular fibroblast cell activity could represent a common mechanism in cerebral injury response. Dr Lewandowski is a researcher from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He works on the regulation of the blood-brain barrier & vascular remodeling in neurodegenerative diseases with particular focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Please find a video of the webinar, here. Related links Dr Sebastian Lewandowski Karolinska Institute Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS) Brain & nervous system Dementia Small vessel disease Read more about this webinar on the "Perivascular spaces in small vessel disease" website Social media tags & titles Dr Sebastian Lewandowski will deliver a webinar to the Edinburgh Imaging Neuroimaging Sciences group on Tue 16 Jun 2020. @LewandowskiSA @karolinskainst @EdinUniBrainSci #ALS #neurodegeneration #SmallVesselDisease Publication date 20 May, 2020