Startup

Gliapharm

Description

Gliapharm is a biotech startup based in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to reimagining brain health by focusing on the role of glial cells in brain function and health. Their team of experts is leveraging decades of research to develop new drugs targeting glia-mediated pathways for neuroprotection and cognitive function maintenance in patients with challenging neurological and psychiatric disorders. By stimulating energy utilization in the brain through astrocytes, Gliapharm aims to address brain hypometabolism, a core feature of various neurological conditions.

Official source

Description

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Neuroscience: Developmental neuroscience

Categories (13)

Developmental neuroscience

The development of the nervous system, or neural development (neurodevelopment), refers to the processes that generate, shape, and reshape the nervous system of animals, from the earliest stages of embryonic development to adulthood. The field of neural development draws on both neuroscience and developmental biology to describe and provide insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which complex nervous systems develop, from nematodes and fruit flies to mammals.

Topics in psychiatry

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. Initial psychiatric assessment of a person begins with a case history and mental status examination. Physical examinations, psychological tests, and laboratory tests may be conducted. On occasion, neuroimaging or other neurophysiological studies are performed.

Neuroanatomy

Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems. Their neuroanatomy is therefore better understood. In vertebrates, the nervous system is segregated into the internal structure of the brain and spinal cord (together called the central nervous system, or CNS) and the routes of the nerves that connect to the rest of the body (known as the peripheral nervous system, or PNS).

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, psychology, physics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, statistics, and mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia and neural circuits.

Related concepts (32)

Mental disorder

A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is also characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior. It is usually associated with distress or impairment in important areas of functioning. There are many different types of mental disorders. Mental disorders may also be referred to as mental health conditions.

Radial glial cell

Radial glial cells, or radial glial progenitor cells (RGPs), are bipolar-shaped progenitor cells that are responsible for producing all of the neurons in the cerebral cortex. RGPs also produce certain lineages of glia, including astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Their cell bodies (somata) reside in the embryonic ventricular zone, which lies next to the developing ventricular system. During development, newborn neurons use radial glia as scaffolds, traveling along the radial glial fibers in order to reach their final destinations.

Glia

Glia, also called glial cells (gliocytes) or neuroglia, are non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. The neuroglia make up more than one half the volume of neural tissue in our body. They maintain homeostasis, form myelin in the peripheral nervous system, and provide support and protection for neurons. In the central nervous system, glial cells include oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, ependymal cells and microglia, and in the peripheral nervous system they include Schwann cells and satellite cells.

Glial scar

A glial scar formation (gliosis) is a reactive cellular process involving astrogliosis that occurs after injury to the central nervous system. As with scarring in other organs and tissues, the glial scar is the body's mechanism to protect and begin the healing process in the nervous system. In the context of neurodegeneration, formation of the glial scar has been shown to have both beneficial and detrimental effects.

Psychiatric genetics

Psychiatric genetics is a subfield of behavioral neurogenetics and behavioral genetics which studies the role of genetics in the development of mental disorders (such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism). The basic principle behind psychiatric genetics is that genetic polymorphisms (as indicated by linkage to e.g. a single nucleotide polymorphism) are part of the causation of psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric genetics is a somewhat new name for the old question, "Are behavioral and psychological conditions and deviations inherited?".

Related people (18)

Pierre Magistretti

Pierre J. Magistretti is an internationally-recognized neuroscientist who has made significant contributions in the field of brain energy metabolism. His group has discovered some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the coupling between neuronal activity and energy consumption by the brain. This work has considerable ramifications for the understanding of the origin of the signals detected with the current functional brain imaging techniques used in neurological and psychiatric research (see for example Magistretti et al, Science, 283: 496 497, 1999). He is the author of over 100 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. He has given over 80 invited lectures at international meetings or at universities in Europe and North America, including the 2000 Talairach Lecture at the Functional Mapping of the Human Brain Conference. In November 2000 he has been a Mc Donnel Visiting Scholar at Washington University School of Medicine. Pierre J. Magistretti is the President-Elect (2002 2004) of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) which has a membership of over 15000 European neuroscientists. He has been first president of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience (1997-1999) and the first Chairman of the Department of Neurosciences of the University of Lausanne (1996 1998). Pierre J. Magistretti is Professor of Physiology (since 1988) at the University of Lausanne Medical School. He has been Vice-Dean of the University of Lausanne Medical School from 1996 to 2000. Pierre Magistretti, is Director of the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and Director of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience of the University of Lausanne and CHUV. He is also Director of the NCCR SYNAPSY "the synaptic bases of mental diseases". POSITIONS AND HONORS MAIN POSITION HELD 1988-2004 Professor of Physiology, University of Lausanne Medical School 1996-2000 Vice-Dean for Preclinical Departments, University of Lausanne Medical School 2001-2004 Chairman, Department of Physiology, University of Lausanne Medical School 2004-present Professor and Director, Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of Lausanne Medical School and Hospitals (UNIL-CHUV) (Joint appointment with EPFL) 2005-2008 Professor and Co-Director, Brain Mind Institute, Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne (Joint appointment with UNIL-CHUV) 2007-present Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Centre dImagerie Biomédicale (CIBM), an Imaging Consortium of the Universities, University Hospitals of Lausanne and Geneva and of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 2008-present Professor and Director, Brain Mind Institute, Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne Joint appointment with UNIL-CHUV) 2010-present Director, National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) The synaptic bases of mental diseases of the Swiss National Science Foundation 2010-present Secretary General, International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) MAIN HONORS AND AWARDS 1997 Recipient of the Theodore-Ott Prize of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences 2001 Elected Member of Academia Europaea 2001 Elected Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, ad personam 2002 Recipient of the Emil Kraepelin Guest Professorship, Max Planck Institute für Psychiatry, Münich 2006 Elected Professor at Collège de France, Paris, International Chair 2007-2008 2009 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship, Canadian Psychological Association 2011 Camillo Golgi Medal Award, Golgi Fondation 2011 Elected Member of the American College of NeuroPsychopharmacology (ACNP)

Related publications (27)

Intelligent Neural Interfaces: An Emerging Era in Neurotechnology

Mahsa Shoaran, Uisub Shin, Mohammad Ali Shaeri

Integrating smart algorithms on neural devices presents significant opportunities for various brain disorders. In this paper, we review the latest advancements in the development of three categories of intelligent neural prostheses featuring embedded signa ...

2024 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)2024

Adolescent Stress-Induced Ventral Hippocampus Redox Dysregulation Underlies Behavioral Deficits and Excitatory/Inhibitory Imbalance Related to Schizophrenia

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Dogukan Hazar Ülgen, Thamyris Silva

Background and hypothesis: Redox dysregulation has been proposed as a convergent point of childhood trauma and the emergence of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (SCZ). A critical region particularly vulnerable to environmental insults during ad ...

2024

Distinct ultrastructural phenotypes of glial and neuronal alpha-synuclein inclusions in multiple system atrophy

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Amanda Jennifer Lewis, Marta Di Fabrizio, Domenic Burger, Carolin Böing

Multiple System Atrophy is characterized pathologically by the accumulation of alpha-synuclein (aSyn) into glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs). The mechanism underlying the formation of GCIs is not well understood. In this study, correlative light and elec ...

2024

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Related units (13)

Related concepts (32)

Related people (18)

Categories (13)

Developmental neuroscience

Topics in psychiatry

Neuroanatomy

Neuroscience