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April 11-12, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain
OF EXCELLENCE
IN INTERNATIONAL
MEETINGS
YEARS
Neuroscience Congress 2019 Journal of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Research | Volume 4
NEUROSCIENCE AND
NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS
2nd International Conference on
EXPLORING THE BASIS OF NEUROREGENERATION: IDENTIFICATION OF KEY
MOLECULES WITH PROTEOMICS AND FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS IN THE MAMMALIAN
SPINAL CORD
Miranda Mladinic
University of Rijeka, Croatia
One of the major challenges of modern biology concerns the inability of the adult mammalian central ner-
vous system (CNS) to regenerate and repair itself after injury. Unlike the situation in adult mammals, lower
vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians, and embryonal higher vertebrates can regenerate significant portion
of their CNS. It is poorly understood why this potential is lost with evolution and development and becomes
very limited in adult mammals. A preferred model to study and reveal the cellular and molecular basis of this
loss is neonatal opossum (Monodelphis domestica). Opossums are marsupials that are born at very immature
stage with unique possibility to successfully regenerate spinal cord after injury in the first two weeks of their life
and thus offer an exceptional opportunity to study neuronal regeneration. We are analyzing the proteoms of
the spinal tissue of the opossums of different age, looking for the molecules associated with regenerative axon
growth and testing their functional role in neuronal regeneration using in vitro intact spinal cord cultures and
advanced imaging. In parallel, we are developing opossum primary spinal cell cultures made from the animals
of different age, to reveal dissimilarities in their cellular content (giving focus on stem cells) and metabolic char-
acteristics related to regeneration. Our results are giving new insights into neuronal regeneration in mammals,
but also provide candidate targets for future novel therapeutic interventions for neurodegenerative disorders..
Miranda Mladinic, J Neurol Neurorehabil Res 2019, Volume 4
Miranda Mladinic has completed her PhD in 1998 at SISSA, Trieste, Italy. She is the professor at the department of biotechnology of
the University of Rijeka, Croatia and the head of the unit for molecular and systemic biomedicine. She is also a member of the coun-
cil of the senate to the University of Rijeka and to the council for scientific research of the University of Rijeka. She is the member of
the evaluation committee of the Croatian Science Foundation in the field of natural sciences – biology. She has over 30 publications
that have been cited over 580 times, and her publication H-index is 17 and has been serving as reviewer of reputed journals and
International scientific foundations.
BIOGRAPHY