Dr Florian Merkle

I am interested in human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived models to study metabolic and neurodegenerative disease. My group has a particular interest in hypothalamic neurons that regulate appetite, respond to existing anti-obesity drugs, and may reveal new therapeutic strategies. Specifically, we develop scalable and disease-relevant cellular phenotypic assays to enable target discovery at scale (e.g. drug and CRISPR screens), and to validate existing targets and lead compounds in a native human cellular system. 

We collaborate extensively with both academic and pharmaceutical partners. Our vision is to expand the repertoire of hypothalamic cells that can can be robustly generated to better connect genotype to disease-relevant phenotype, and to contribute to the development of new therapies for obesity and a wide array of other diseases of hypothalamic origin.