Reprogramming Stars #25:Modeling Brain Aging with Direct Reprogramming of Skin Cells into Neurons—An Interview with Dr. Jerome Mertens

REPROGRAMMING STAR: Dr. Jerome Mertens is an Associate Professor at the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), USA. Dr. Mertens’s lab applies neuronal direct reprogramming and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) generation to develop informative models of human biological aging and its intersection with age-related diseases, investigating the effects of epigenetic aging, rejuvenation, and stability of adult neuronal identity. With the goal of identifying key molecular players at the interface of human biological aging and disease to develop new treatments for age-related neurodegeneration, the lab relies on a patient-centric approach supported by cellular neuroscience and big data biology. By employing multi-omics strategies, functional genetics, and cell biology approaches to characterize human patient-based reprogramming models, Dr. Mertens’s work elucidates the interplay between non-genetic and age-related cellular changes and disease pathways.