Biography

Florian Merkle obtained his B.Sc. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco in 2007 where he determined the lineage and potential of adult neural stem cells in the mouse brain. Florian then joined the laboratories of Kevin Eggan and Alex Schier at Harvard University and started his own group at the University of Cambridge in 2015. His laboratory studies the impact of environmental factors and disease-associated mutations on the function of hPSC-derived hypothalamic neurons to uncover mechanisms that might be targeted to develop novel treatments for obesity, and is exploring the mechanistic links between metabolic and neurodegenerative disease to reveal new therapeutic targets using a combination of in vitro and animal models. His group is highly collaborative and dedicated to improving the reproducibility and safety of stem cell-based research and clinical work. Florian is honoured to be a Roberston Investigator from the New York Stem Cell Foundation, and to be supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Wellcome Trust and Royal Society, and the Medical Research Council.