Biology

Prof. Itsuki Ajioka
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan

Abstract:

Although our brain do not regenerate after injury by self-healing, recent advances in neurobiology uncovered the potency of brain regeneration. For example, we found and reported the proliferation potency of neurons (Ajioka et al., Cell 2007; Oshikawa et al., Development 2013; Oshikawa et al., Development 2017).

How can we bring out the regenerative potential in injured brain? We tried to understand the regeneration potency of injured brain by the approach of “science”, which reflects building and organizing knowledge of something that does exist. In contrast to “science", “engineering” reflects a creative application for the development of something that does not exist. Thus, “engineering” approach is important to bring out the regenerative potential in injured brain. We focused on “engineering” approach and developed artificial scaffolds for the 3D migration of neurons (Ajioka et al., Biomaterials 2011), the technique to align neurons in the injured brain region (Ajioka et al., Tissue Eng Part A 2015; Jinnou et al., Cell Stem Cell 2018),  the technique to promote angiogenesis in the ischemic brain (Oshikawa et al., Adv Healthc Mater 2017), and the technique of nearâ��infrared optogenetic genome engineering by photonâ��upconversion (Sasaki et al., Angew Chem Int Ed 2019).

In this talk, I would like to introduce recent our finding and discuss how injured brain can regenerate.