Biography

The focus of my research over the past years has been the question how stem cell technology can be harnessed to understand the function and dysfunction of neural circuits that control motor behaviour, and how stem cell-derived tissue can be used to regenerate neuromuscular circuits in adult mammalian animal models and, ultimately, in human patients. To this end, my group is undertaking projects aimed at i) assembling neuromuscular circuits from stem cell-derived, defined cell populations to study normal neural development and degenerative disease processes in vitro and ii) restoring motor function affected by spinal cord injury or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with human pluripotent stem cell-based neural grafts.

Please see my Research Staff Profile for more detail

Key publications:

• Machado et al., 2019. In Vitro Modeling of Nerve–Muscle Connectivity in a Compartmentalized Tissue Culture Device. Advanced Biosystems.
• Bryson et al., 2014. Optical Control of Muscle Function by Transplantation of Stem Cell–Derived Motor Neurons in Mice. Science.
• Machado et al., 2014. Reconstruction of phrenic neuron identity in embryonic stem cell-derived motor neurons. Development.

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