CMM Seminar Series: The role of glial cells in rare inherited brain disorders by Dr. Thomas Durcan
- Time:
- Location:
- CMM Lecture Hall, Visionsgatan 18, floor 00, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, L8:00.
- Speaker:
- Dr Thomas Durcan, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
- Topic:
- The role of glial cells in rare inherited brain disorders
Speaker: Dr. Thomas M. Durcan, Associate Professor, Montreal Neurological Institute (The Neuro), and McGill University, Montreal, Director of the Early Drug Discovery Unit.
Title of the talk: The role of glial cells in rare inherited brain disorders
Date and time: Wednesday 28 October 2026, 15:00-16:00, followed by a networking reception.
Host: Associate Professor Ida Nilsson.
Venue: CMM Lecture Hall, Visionsgatan 18, floor 00, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, L8:00.
After the talk there will be a networking reception with some drinks and light bites.
Thank you for signing up using this link or using the QR code. It facilitates the organization!
Speaker’s short bio:
Dr. Thomas M. Durcan is an Associate Professor within the Montreal Neurological Institute (The Neuro) and McGill University. He is also Director of the Neuro’s Early Drug Discovery Unit (EDDU), focused on the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for fundamental and translational discovery projects through partnerships with academia and industry. Founded under a decade ago, the group has established a cohort of 200+ iPSCs that have been advanced into different projects within the group and used to generate a wide range of neuronal and glial subtypes, in addition to more advanced 3D brain organoid models. For the talk, Dr. Durcan will focus on the development and characterization of 3D brain organoid models for modelling PD on a dish. This work is funded through research grants from the Michael J Fox Foundation, Brain Canada, CQDM, the Canadian Institute for Health Research, the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the McGill Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives (HBHL) initiative.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-durcan-18593b23/
https://www.mcgill.ca/neuro/research/eddu
https://www.neuro-edduportal.com/
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Microglia
Dorion MF, Yaqubi M, Murdoch HJ, Hall JA, Dudley R, Antel JP, Durcan TM, Healy LM. Systematic comparison of culture media uncovers phenotypic shift of primary human microglia defined by reduced reliance to CSF1R signaling. Glia (2023).
Dorion MF, Yaqubi M, Senkevich K, Kieran NW, MacDonald A, et al. MerTK is a mediator of alpha-synuclein fibril uptake by human microglia. Brain (2024).
Dorion MF, Casas D, Shlaifer I, Yaqubi M, Fleming P, et al. An adapted protocol to derive microglia from stem cells and its application in the study of CSF1R-related disorders. Molecular Neurodegeneration (2024).
Roy I, Fiorini M, Thomas RA, Ambriz GJ, Farhan S, Piscopo VEC, Durcan TM. Single nuclear RNA sequencing shows altered microglial and astrocytic functions in post-mortem Parkinson’s disease tissue. BMC Genomic Data (2026).
Oligodendrocytes / Oligodendroglial Lineage
Piscopo VEC, Chapleau A, Blaszczyk GJ, Sirois J, You Z, et al. The use of a SOX10 reporter toward ameliorating oligodendrocyte lineage differentiation from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Glia (2024).
Blaszczyk GJ, Piscopo VEC, Goldsmith TM, Chapleau A, Sirois J, et al. Single cell RNAseq to identify subpopulations of glial progenitors in iPSC-derived oligodendroglial lineage cultures. NPJ Systems Biology and Applications (2025).
Blaszczyk GJ, Mohammadnia A, Piscopo VEC, Sirois J, Cui QL, et al. Pro-Inflammatory Molecules Implicated in Multiple Sclerosis Divert the Development of Human Oligodendrocyte Lineage Cells. Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation (2025).
Blaszczyk GJ, Weng C, Mohammadnia A, Cui QL, Giurleo A, et al. Age and Maturation Stage Linked Consequences of Fibrinogen on Human Oligodendroglia. Journal of Neuroscience Research (2026).