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Björn Vahsen
State Exam Med, MSc
DPhil Student
Biography
I studied medicine at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, including clinical rotations at King’s College London and the University of Zurich. During my medical studies, I was part of the Translational Neurodegeneration group at the Department of Neurology in Göttingen, where I performed comprehensive experimental work on the role of autophagy in axonal degeneration and regeneration in vitro. I then completed an MSc in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, during which time I joined the Oxford Motor Neuron Disease Centre, investigating the role of a synaptotagmin isoform in neuron-like cells in vitro.
Research Summary
For my DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences, I now aim to study the role of microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by using a combined cellular and neuropathological approach. My project is performed in collaboration with Sally Cowley at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and funded by the Clarendon Fund, St John’s College, the MRC-DTP, and the NIHR.
Recent publications
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Inhibition of the autophagic protein ULK1 attenuates axonal degeneration in vitro and in vivo, enhances translation, and modulates splicing.
Journal article
Vahsen BF. et al, (2020), Cell Death Differ
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AAV-Mediated Expression of Dominant-Negative ULK1 Increases Neuronal Survival and Enhances Motor Performance in the MPTP Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease
Journal article
Balke D. et al, (2019), Molecular Neurobiology
