Masterclass – Life Sciences | CHS @ NUS Open House 2022

Biology Meets Medicine (2.30 -3.15 pm)
Small fish models are widely used in biomedical research to understand how organs form and function, and how defects in genes and proteins lead to human disease, such as osteoporosis. Bone is constantly remodelled to maintain rigidity and flexibility. In this process, old and brittle bone is removed by bone-resorbing cells, the osteoclasts, and replaced with new bone produced by bone-forming cells, the osteoblasts. In humans and fish alike, these cell types need to constantly communicate with each other to ensure that correct quantities of bone are replaced. If the communication is disrupted, for example by hormonal changes, this can lead to osteoporosis. In this talk, we will describe how we used a small fish to discover a new molecular pathway that allows osteoblasts to control osteoclast activity, paving the way for new therapeutic strategies.

Speaker: Associate Professor Christoph Winkler
Assoc Prof Christoph Winkler graduated from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University with a Diploma in Biology and a Diploma thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich-Martinsried. He received his Dr. rer. nat. degree with summa cum laude from the University of Würzburg and did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington. His current research areas are developmental biology, neurogenetics and molecular cell biology. His team uses zebrafish and medaka as models for biomedical research to investigate fundamental mechanisms underlying motor neuron degeneration in spinal muscular atrophy and bone diseases. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences and a Principal Investigator at NUS’ Centre for Bioimaging Centre.