Dr. Friedhelm Serwane, LMU München

The bottom-up assembly of complex systems promises their fundamental understanding. In many
cases, however, this assembly is still beyond our experimental reach - a prime example therefore is
our brain. In recent years, researchers have engineered multicellular 3D systems, organoids, which
share the same cell types and tissue organization as their in vivo counterparts. Those in vitro models
now provide an opportunity to glimpse at how biology self-assembles neuronal networks and how
nanoscale building blocks, such as cell-cell adhesion molecules, contribute to the formation of organoid
shape, structure and function.
In this seminar I will present the current and future research of our newly established ERC-group.
We will explore, how tissue mechanical properties depend on cell-cell adhesion molecules to control
the formation of retina organoids. For this, we build on our expertise in mechanics measurements1,2
and retina organoid technology.
Quantifying the mechanics of neuronal systems holds the potential for establishing a biophysical
understanding how neuronal networks are formed. In addition, it opens the door to neurodegenerative
disease modeling as it will be performed, for example, by our group.

1 Serwane F., Mongera A., Rowghanian P., Kealhofer D., Lucio A., Hockenbery Z., Campas O. In vivo quantification of spatiallyvarying
mechanical properties in developing tissues. Nature Methods, 14, 181-186, 2017
2 Mongera A., Gustafson H., Rowghanian P., Shelton E., Kealhofer D., Serwane F., Lucio A., Giammona J., Campas O., A fluid-tosolid jamming transition underlies vertebrate body axis elongation. Nature, 561, 401-405, 2018

Registration URL:  https://meetanyway.com/events/cens-colloquium-5y5s