Regenerative Neuroscience - Schoeberlein & Surbek Lab

Our expertise is in:

• Perinatal brain damage
• Neuroregeneration
• Stem cell therapy
• Placenta- and unbilical cord-derived stem cells
• Exosomes / extracellular vesicles
• Non-coding RNA & epigenetics
• PreImplantation factor as a novel neuroprotective agent

Our lab has its research focus on the development of cell-based therapies for the treatment of encephalopathy of prematurity that leads to severe neonatal morbidity and mortality and to long-term neurological deficits. The therapy of the very vulnerable premature neonates requires therapeutic approaches that are safe, efficient and noninvasive. Perinatal tissues, such as the umbilical cord, and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) derived from them are promising sources for a number of disorders in the neonate, including neurodegenerative diseases. Extracellular vesicles (EV) secreted by perinatal cells and the molecules associated with them (e.g. microRNAs) are involved in the regulation of pathophysiological pathways and have the potential to act as therapeutic agents. To better understand the pathophysiology of the disease, we currently also investigate the specific role of reactive astrocytes in the disease pathogenesis and are looking into biomarkers that could facilitate the screening for premature neonates that are at risk for the development of neurologic sequelae.