Björn Vahsen

I graduated from medical school at the Georg-August-University Göttingen in Germany with a medical degree and a research MD (summa cum laude and prize for the best thesis of the year). My MD project (with Paul Lingor) focused on the role of the autophagic protein ULK1 in axonal degeneration and regeneration using primary cell models. I then completed the MSc in Neuroscience and a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the Oxford Motor Neuron Disease Centre (with Kevin Talbot and Martin Turner), studying the role of microglia in ALS. During my DPhil, I was Lamb and Flag Scholar and North Senior Scholar at St John's College, Clarendon Scholar, and member of the MRC DTP and NIHR Academy. I received the Postgraduate Prize 2023 from the British Neuroscience Association and the Felgenhauer Research Award 2023 for Young Neuroscientists from the German Neurological Society. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Talbot Lab, working on several different projects that ultimately aim to shed light on the role of microglia in ALS. I am also Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College, having previously served for two years as Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College.

For more details, have a listen to this interview with the Cortex Club podcast. 

My research focuses on the role of non-neuronal cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathophysiology and their potential as therapeutic targets. I have a particular interest in microglia (brain immune cells) and their contribution to motor neuron dysfunction and death in ALS. 

I use induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models to derive ALS-relevant cell types (human microglia and motor neurons) from people with genetic forms of ALS to answer two main questions:

1) How do ALS-associated mutations affect microglial biology?

2) Do microglia with ALS-associated mutations affect motor neuron function and what are the underlying mechanisms?

I have developed a co-culture system of iPSC-derived motor neurons and microglia, allowing the investigation of how microglia affect motor neurons in ALS (Scientific Reports, 2022). Using this system, I have shown that microglia with the commonest ALS associated mutation, a hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene, are pro-inflammatory and toxic to co-cultured motor neurons. This toxicity was partly mediated by MMP9 (Nature Communications, 2023).  

My work has been funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association, MND Scotland, a Medical Sciences pump priming grant, an ARUK pump priming award, and a Rosetrees Trust seedcorn grant.