Dr Florian Merkle

Dr. Merkle has a long-standing interest in neuroscience and stem cell research. He studied neuroscience as an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on a full tuition merit scholarship. Florian then went on to work with Arturo Alvarez-Bullya at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), on adult neurogenesis. His work revealed the embryonic origin of adult neural stem cells, overturned the widely-held belief that these stem cells are homogenous and multipotent, and discovered several new types of adult-born cell types. As a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Florian worked with Alex Schier and Kevin Eggan to develop gene editing tools in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). He also developed novel methods to differentiate hESCs into hypothalamic neurones that regulate feeding behaviour, sleep, stress, other essential physiological processes. Dr. Merkle is now a principal investigator at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge. He is also an affiliate member of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.