Gesine Paul-Visse

Our research

Being a neurologist, my vision is to contribute to discovery, development and clinical implementation of novel therapies for neurological disorders. As such, I perform clinical trials and also have a preclinical research group.

The overarching goal of our research is to modify disease progression. We are especially interested in pericytes, guardians of the homeostasis of the brain’s microenvironment. We hypothesize that pericytes form the link between neurodegeneration, inflammation and vascular dysfunction. Microvascular alterations, blood-brain barrier leakage and pericyte dysfunction also play a crucial role in other, more acute brain pathologies, such as stroke and glioblastoma. Our lab has the mission to decode and modulate the language of pericytes in these different brain pathologies.

As a GCP- trained clinician with considerable experience in clinical studies, I also have a focus on novel clinical studies aiming not just at therapeutic improvement but structural regeneration. I have been investigator in several growth factor trials in Parkinson’s disease, a neurotransplantation trial addressing dopaminergic cells from fetal tissues (Transeuro) and I am clinical PI of the ongoing STEM-PD trial, a First-in-Human trial assessing the safety and tolerability of dopaminergic progenitor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells in Parkinson’s disease. 
 

Aims

• Specify the transcriptomic signatures and secretome changes of pericytes different pathologies
• Elucidate the contribution of vascular dysfunction to pathology in Parkinson’s disease
• Determine the impact of pericyte signaling on glioblastoma cell migration
• Investigate the role of pericytes for inflammation in the brain
• Examine the interface between diabetes and brain vascular dysfunction and its impact on disease progression in Parkinson’s disease and stroke
• Analyse the impact of antidiabetic drugs on the integrity of the brain vasculature 
• Identify novel potential targets in pericytes to modulate the microenvironment of the brain in distinct pathologies
• Perform cutting-edge clinical trials investigating novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease
   

Strengths of the group

Strong translational aspect with questions taken from clinical needs and findings validated in clinical samples. We work with disease modeling and target identification in vitro (cell cultures) and in vivo (several disease models) and utilize different patient samples (post mortem tissue, CSF, blood).

We apply morphological and behavioral analysis as well as gene expression, proteome and secretome analysis to identify novel molecules and pathways involved in disease progression, neuroprotection and regeneration.

Impact

To allow the rational design of novel therapeutic strategies we have to understand the specific cellular and molecular changes in pathology. Our work contributes to scientific advances in this field that we hope will make a significant impact on health and quality of life.

| Research Output

Affiliations

• Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine 
• Translational Neurology Group, Department of Clinical Sciences
• Department of Neurology, Skånes University Hospital, Lund