Academy member - The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Asgeir Kobro-Flatmoen
Former Academy Leader
Kobro-Flatmoen works on elucidating the earliest pathological changes in Alzheimer’s disease. The long-term aim of this is to put us into a better position with respect to future development of medication, which should target specifically those initial changes that bring about the disease, before any major symptoms arise.
Kobro-Flatmoen’s research has shown how a particular population of neurons deep within the brains center for navigation likely develop very early pathological changes, at a time point long prior to that when Alzheimer’s disease starts to cause cognitive impairments. There is strong evidence to suggest the disease may spread from this region and throughout the brain, making this finding highly relevant.
His current work centers on this particular population of neurons, and involves trying to determine whether they express certain molecules, which, despite being advantageous for most of life, makes them vulnerable to long-term accumulation of dysfunctional and eventually toxic proteins. Alongside his own scientific experimentation, Kobro-Flatmoen supervises several graduate- and undergraduate students, which has so far ended in four successful Master’s theses.
Position
Researcher at the K.G.Jebsen Centre for Alzheimer´s Disease (NTNU profile)
Selected publications
Kobro Flatmoen A. and Witter M.P, (2019) Neuronal chemo-architecture of the entorhinal cortex, Eur J Neurosci, 50, pp 3627-3662.
Kobro-Flatmoen, A., Nagelhus A. and Witter M. P. (2016) Reelin-immunoreactive neurons in entorhinal cortex layer II selectively express intracellular amyloid in early Alzheimer's disease, Neurobiology of Disease, 93, pp 172-183.
Heggland, I., Storkaas, I. S., Soligard, H. T., Kobro-Flatmoen, A. and Witter, M. P. (2015) Stereological estimation of neuron number and plaque load in the hippocampal region of a transgenic rat model of Alzheimer's disease, Eur J Neurosci, 41, pp 1245-62.
Project involvement
International
Interactions between reelin and amyloid-beta in the entorhinal cortex. A possible initiator of Alzheimer’s disease.International collaboration Funded by the Thon Foundation, with Professor Gunnar Keppler Gouras, Experimental Dementia Research, Lund University, Sweden; Professor Heikki Tanila, A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland; Professor Cliff Kentros and Professor Menno Witter, Jebsen Centre for Alzheimer’s disease at Kavli Institute for systems Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Intracellular prion-like Aβ spread in vivo and the breakdown of Aβ homeostasis. Ongoing International collaboration with Professor Gunnar Keppler Gouras, Experimental Dementia Research, Lund University, Sweden.
Potential changes in KCC2 and NKCC1 in models of Alzheimer’s disease. Ongoing International collaboration with Professor Kai Kaila, Laboratory of Neurobiology, Molecular and Integrative Biosciences, and HiLife, University of Helsinki, Finland. Collaborative project.
The relevance of endothelial cells to entorhinal integrity .Ongoing International explorative collaboration with Professor Richard Siow and Researcher Meliss Barber, School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences, Kings College Lonon, UK.
Local
In vivo modelling of amyloid-β and tau interactions in EC. Ongoing work in our K.G. Jebsen Centre for Alzheimer’s disease, with Professor Cliff Kentros and Professor Menno Witter.
In vitro modelling of adult AD pathology-affected entorhinal layer II-neurons. Ongoing work in our K.G. Jebsen Centre with Menno Witter and in collaboration with Associate Professors Ioanna Sandvig and Axel Sandvig, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Exercised Plasma to treat Alzheimer’s disease – The Explas Study. Ongoing local collaboration with Professor Ulrik Wisløff, Cardiac Exercise Research Group, K.G. Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Pre-clinical transcriptomic changes in the entorhinal cortex in a rodent model for Alzheimer’s disease. Ongoing local collaboration with Professor Pål Sætrom and Researcher Lene Olsen, Institute for clinical and molecular medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
