Pilz Lab

Head

Enlarge

Dr. Gregor Pilz

+49 89 2180 71643
gregor.pilz@bmc.med.lmu.de

Research Topics

• Cellular principles of adult neurogenesis
• In vivo imaging of neural network activity in the hippocampus during behavior
• Impact of age-related diseases on hippocampal network

Publications

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6161-4976

Top 5 publications

Bottes S*, Jaeger BN*, Pilz GA*, Jörg DJ, Cole JD, Kruse M, Harris L, Korobeynyk VI, Mallona I, Helmchen F, Guillemot F, Simons BD, Jessberger S (2021) Long-term self-renewing stem cells in the adult mouse hippocampus identified by intravital imaging. Nat Neurosci doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-00759-4

Pilz GA*, Bottes S*, Betizeau M, Jörg DJ, Carta S, Simons BD, Helmchen F, Jessberger S (2018) Live imaging of neurogenesis in the adult mouse hippocampus. Science 359(6376):658-662; Highlighted in F1000 (11* ); Perspective in Science;

Pilz GA*, Carta S*, Stäuble A, Ayaz A, Jessberger S, Helmchen F (2016) Functional Imaging of Dentate Granule Cells in the Adult Mouse Hippocampus. J Neuroscience 13:7407-14 [OA]

Moore DL, Pilz GA, Arauzo-Bravo MJ, Barral Y, Jessberger S (2015) A mechanism for the segregation of age in mammalian neural stem cells. Science 18;349 [OA]

Pilz GA, Shitamukai A, Reillo I, Pacary E, Schwausch J, Stahl R, Ninkovic J, Snippert HJ, Clevers H, Guillemot F, Godinho L, Borrell V, Matsuzaki F and Götz M (2013) Amplification of progenitors in the mammalian telencephalon includes a novel radial glial cell type. Nature Communications 4:2125 [OA]

Projects

Neural stem cells (NSCs) generate new neurons both during brain development (embryonic neurogenesis) and throughout life in distinct areas of the adult mammalian brain (adult neurogenesis). Alterations of NSC function during embryonic brain development lead to brain malformations and impact proper brain function later in life. Adult neurogenesis is associated with physiologic brain function but has also been implicated in a number of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying adult neurogenesis and the resulting network modulation represents a prerequisite for future therapeutic targeting of adult NSCs for endogenous brain repair.

With NSC- and neuron-specific labeling techniques and longitudinal in vivo imaging approaches our lab studies the cellular principles of NSC biology and neural network function in the adult brain using rodent models of physiology, aging and disease.

Our aim is to understand how physiologic and disease-associated alterations affect NSC behavior leading to plastic changes of the adult brain on a cellular, network and behavioral level. Particular interest lies on disease associated alterations to the neurovascular niche in the hippocampus, the effect of a disease-associated microglia state on the neurogenic lineage and the contribution of adult-born neurons to early epileptiform events in Alzheimers disease.

Team