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Mertens, Jerome - Profile Picture

Jerome Mertens

Salk Institute for Biological Studies, US & University of Innsbruck, AT
Biography

Jerome Mertens is a cell biologist and head of the Neural Aging Lab at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His research focus is on modeling brain aging and age-related neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases using patient-specific cellular reprogramming models.

He obtained his PhD at the University of Bonn working on iPSC models for Alzheimer’s Disease with Oliver Brüstle, and continued his research as a postdoc with Rusty Gage at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego.

Jerome is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Molecular Biology of the University of Innsbruck in Austria, and Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute in San Diego.

His ERC-funded lab in Austria is focused on using direct conversion of human donor fibroblasts into induced neurons (iNs) for studying human cells, and the interface between aging, dementia, and psychiatric disorders. The lab also combines iN and iPSC differentiation technologies to investigate effects of epigenetic rejuvenation and adult neuronal identity, and to build new multi-cellular model systems. To dissect their human patient-based reprogramming models, the Neural Aging Lab uses several sequencing and other ‘multi-omics’ strategies to complement functional genetic and cell biological approaches. The ultimate goal is to better understand age-related disorders via elucidating the interplay between non-genetic and human age-related cellular changes and disease pathways.

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