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Andreas H. Kottmann

Andreas H.
Kottmann
Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Columbia University
ak139@columbia.edu

Andreas Kottmann is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry. He is also on the faculty of the Genome Center, the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene. Dr. Kottmann was a research bursar at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, and trained as a molecular immunologist with George Koehler at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany, from which he received his Ph.D. degree in 1991. He received post doctoral training in developmental neurobiology at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior under the mentorship of Thomas M Jessell. Prior to becoming a faculty member of Columbia University in 2003, Dr. Kottmann was the Vice President of Research of the Biotech and Contract Research Company PsychoGenics, Inc., which he joined in 1999 as the director of molecular biology research.

Dr. Kottmann's laboratory employs a variety of molecular, pharmacological, cellular and genetic loss and gain of function strategies in mice to define the neuronal contribution towards the regulation of adult stem cell maintenance and/or differentiation. In particular, he is interested in determining whether physiological cell stress responses in distinct neuronal populations that project to the subventricular zone (SVZ) in the adult brain influence the qualitative outcome of neurogenesis in the SVZ. His lab also studies whether signaling from adult spinal motor neurons contributes to the maintenance and/or activity of the muscle stem cell compartment.

Dr. Kottmann's work aims to clarify whether the qualitative outcome of adult stem cell differentiation can be adapted to current physiological needs of the organism through neuronal signaling to the germinal niche. These studies might give guidance to novel approaches to stimulate in vivo resident stem cells to give rise to particular cell identities that need to be replaced due to neuro-degeneration or muscle injury.