Have you ever wondered how movement works? What happens between the moment you decide to move your hand and the moment your muscles respond? Every movement we make, from blinking to taking a step, depends on specialized neurons, called motor neurons, that connect your brain to your muscles. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, these motor neurons gradually die, leading to progressive muscle weakness and paralysis.

My research focuses on understanding how the connection between muscles and neurons is disrupted in ALS. At the same time, I am also interested in understanding why some neurons are more vulnerable to the disease than others.

To study this, we use human induced pluripotent stem cells, from which all cell types of the developing embryo can be derived, and differentiate these into motor neurons and skeletal muscle. These cells allow us to create a model of neuro-muscular connectivity in a dish to study cell signaling between neurons and muscles. Moreover, it also allows us to assess intracellular miscommunication and other disease mechanisms. This is achieved using stem cell culture, the genetic scissor CRISPR/Cas9, sequencing, transcriptomics, microscopy and other molecular biology techniques.

Understanding these different mechanisms will help us reveal the processes that underlie ALS and develop better treatments.