'From stem cells to behavior: Brain regeneration in a tetrapod nervous system' - a Stem Cell Stars Seminar with Elly Tanaka

Talk Title: "From stem cells to behavior: Brain regeneration in a tetrapod nervous system"

When: 16 October 2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 + mingle

Where: Segerfalksalen, BMC A10

Host: Principal Investigator Nicholas Leigh

Following the lecture, take the opportunity to mingle and connect with colleagues and fellow researchers over refreshments at our post-seminar gathering. This is a wonderful opportunity to expand your professional network and share ideas in a relaxed setting. 

All are welcome, and no registration is required!

About the Speaker:

Elly Tanaka

• Scientific Director, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Adjunct Investigator, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria

Elly Tanaka studies how complex body structures are able to regenerate. She's particularly interested in the molecular and cellular basis of limb and nervous system regeneration and uses the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) as a model organism as it displays remarkable regenerative capabilities. In the Tanaka Lab, they use this model to investigate how mammals, like mice, have lost their regeneration capabilities over evolution. These studies also help them to design new strategies  for regenerating or replacing mammalian tissues. For example, they have engineered three-dimensional spinal cord tissue from mouse embryonic stem cells and retinal pigment epithelia from human embryonic stem cells.

After studying biochemistry at Harvard University, Elly Tanaka earned a PhD from the University of California in San Francisco. She first worked on limb regeneration as a postdoctoral researcher with Jeremy Brockes at University College London. Elly Tanaka started her own lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden in 1999. In 2008, she became a professor at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD), of which she later became director. Since 2016, Elly Tanaka has been Senior Group Leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), also at the Vienna BioCenter.

Elly Tanaka is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and was inducted into the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences in 2023. She received the Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the German Ernst Schering Prize, among others. In 2023, the ERC awarded an Advanced Grant to Elly Tanaka for studying the innervation of regenerating limbs.

• Learn more about the Tanaka Lab