Agnete Kirkeby

Agnete Kirkeby

Guest Researcher, Associate professor, group leader, Associate Professor - Promotion Programme

Member of:

    ORCID: 0000-0001-8203-6901

    In our research, we're interested in understanding the detailed processes which control human brain development. In particular, we want to understand how the development of the human brain is unique compared to brain development in flies or mice which are most often used to study brain development. The human brain is a highly complex structure, and it consists of hundreds of different subtypes of neural cells, all of which fulfil a highly specific function in the brain network. If we can understand how every single one of these hundreds of subtypes of cells are formed during embryo development, then we can use this knowledge to produce human neurons from human stem cells in the lab. This gives us an absolutely unique opportunity to study these human nerve cells in the lab – as they can be used for drug screening or for transplantation as a regenerative therapy to brain diseases. The opportunity of making and studying human nerve cells in the lab is unique, because we otherwise never have access to living human brain tissue, so we cannot study in detail how human nerve cells function if we do not produce them ourselves in the lab. 

    For more information please visit the following webpages:

    About the Kirkeby lab: https://in.ku.dk/research/kirkeby-lab/ 

    Twitter: @Kirkeby_Lab

    Watch a movie about the Kirkeby group research here

    Watch a movie about the work of Agnete Kirkeby and Malin Parmar to develop a stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease here

    Selected publications

    1. Published

      Preclinical quality, safety, and efficacy of a human embryonic stem cell-derived product for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, STEM-PD

      Parmar, M., Novo Nordisk Cell Therapy R&D, N. N. C. T. R. & Christiansen, Josefine Rågård, 2023, In: Cell Stem Cell. 30, 10, p. 1299-1314.e9 17 p.

      Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

    2. Published

      Modeling neural tube development by differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in a microfluidic WNT gradient

      Rifes, P., Isaksson, M., Rathore, Gaurav Singh, Aldrin-Kirk, P., Moller, O. K., Barzaghi, G., Lee, J., Egerod, Kristoffer Lihme, Belmont-Rausch, Dylan Matthew, Parmar, M., Pers, Tune H, Laurell, T. & Kirkeby, Agnete, 2020, In: Nature Biotechnology. 38, p. 1265-1273 9 p.

      Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Research › peer-review

    3. Published

      Clinical translation of pluripotent stem cell-based therapies: successes and challenges

      Christiansen, Josefine Rågård & Kirkeby, Agnete, 2024, In: Development (Cambridge, England). 151, 7, 9 p., dev202067.

      Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

    ID: 172979835