The quest for neuronal regeneration
The nerve fibers in the spinal cord cannot regenerate. Thus, if they are damaged or even severed, this can result in permanent paralysis or have other serious outcomes. In light of this, Frank Bradke and his research team are investigating how neurons grow and whether it is possible to specifically activate this growth after neuronal damage. To this end, the Bonn researchers carry out studies on cell cultures as well as in mice and rats. Over the years they discovered, for example, how the cytoskeleton is involved in neuronal growth and also gained key insights into the mechanisms that prevent the regrowth respectively regeneration of neurons after damage.
About Frank Bradke
Frank Bradke was born in 1969. After studying at the Freie Universität Berlin and University College London, he carried out research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg within the scope of his doctoral thesis. As a postdoctoral researcher, he moved to the University of California in San Francisco and Stanford University in 2000. In 2003, he was appointed a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried. In 2011, he was awarded the IRP Schellenberg Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of regeneration research. In the same year he became full professor at the University of Bonn, where he also is a member of the ImmunoSensation Cluster of Excellence´s Steering Committe, and was appointed head of the Axon Growth and Regeneration research group at DZNE. Bradke is an elected a member of the Leopoldina (the German National Academy of Sciences), the Academia Europaea, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy for Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. In 2016, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize, which is the most significant research award in Germany. In 2018, he received the Roger de Spoelberch Prize, which is awarded by the Swiss foundation of the same name. In 2021, he was awarded the Carl Zeiss Lecture of the German Society for Cell Biology. In 2023, he received the Remedios Caro Almela Prize for Research in Developmental Neurobiology, which is awarded by the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, in collaboration with partners. In 2024 he was appointed to the Henriette Herz Scouting Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which gives him the opportunity to recommend talented researchers from abroad for a renowned Humboldt Research Fellowship.