Christine Flodgaard Høgsbro

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During my PhD, I am investigating the role of glycosylation in neurodevelopment and neuropathology. Glycans are intrinsically involved in embryogenesis and differentiation with important roles in protein folding, cell signalling, cell-cell interactions, cell adherence and migration. However, a broad characterization of the human brain glycome has been somewhat inaccessible in part due to limited translatability from model organisms to humans, and in part due to the complexity and heterogeneity of glycans and technical limitations of methodologies. For my project, we will use recently developed tools to profile glycans in differentiating and mature neurons both from wild-type induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and knock-outs of selected components involved in glycosylation to elucidate the neuroglycome. The ultimate goal is to aid the endeavours of in-depth characterization of human neurodifferentiation benefiting both regenerative medicine and disease modelling. Specifically, we will employ this strategy to broaden our understanding of sialylation as a regulator of yield in differentiating dopaminergic neurons for transplantation to Parkinson’s patients.