Overcoming the Barriers in Making New Neurons in the Adult Brain: Lessons From Nature

Brain regeneration and neurogenesis require the coordination of complex responses in a time- and region-specific manner. The mammalian brain has a very limited regeneration capacity, with direct lineage reprogramming in vivo emerging as a novel approach for stimulating its repair. Recent years have seen a tremendous amount of progress, providing proof-of-principle evidence for the feasibility of converting cell fate in the brain. However, further advances in this field have been hampered by an incomplete mechanistic understanding of the regeneration process at both the cellular and molecular levels. Examining how new neurons are generated and integrate naturally in the so-called neurogenic regions could provide keys to overcome the current barriers to regeneration in the rest of the brain. In this one-day satellite workshop, we aim at bringing together leaders in the fields of neuronal reprogramming and adult neurogenesis to discuss i) naïve adult brain regeneration and neurogenesis in healthy and disease conditions and ii) the current state-of-the-art as well as barriers impeding progress in inducing glia into neuron conversion in the brain. A special focus is placed on better identifying the cell types and molecules involved in this process that would advance our understanding of brain regeneration and provide potential targets for regenerative medicine research.