Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Centrum für Anatomie
Institut für Integrative Neuroanatomie

Abteilung Klinische Zell- und Neurobiologie
Anatomy Department Members Student Info

Abteilung
Klinische Zell- und Neurobiologie

Postal Adress:
Schumannstraße 20/21, 10098 Berlin

Direct Delivery:
Philippstrasse 12, 10115 Berlin

Prof. Thomas G. Ohm
Tel.: +49(0)30 450 528 202
Fax: +49(0)30 450 528 913
e-mail: thomas_georg.ohm@charite.de
This department’s research is clinically oriented but performs mainly basic research in order to get a better understanding of several neurodegenerative processes. Neurodegeneration is a challenging feature seen in both young and old individuals. Alzheimer’s disease, the major cause of dementia in the elderly, represents an enormous socio-eonomic burden of modern industrial societies. Actually, this neurodegenerative disorder represents the fourth common cause of death in the elderly. The juvenile dementia, Niemann-Pick-C, is a hereditary form of neurodegeneration associated with defects in intracellular trafficking of endocytosed material such as cholesterol. BSE and other so-called prion-diseases represent transmissible forms and are therefore of particular public interest. Our main research activities deal with cytoskeletal changes found in Alzheimer’s disease and Niemann-Pick-C’s disease. In both diseases the microtubule-associated protein tau shows identical immunological and ultrastructural abnormalities and in both diseases the lipid transport and metabolism seems to play a central role in the pathogenesis. The use of neuropathological, cell and molecular biological approaches in association with suited cell culture systems or animal models aims at elucidating more of the underlying pathomechanisms of these disorders. We further investigate the route of entrance of prions and their subsequent fate and effects. Publications of the group can be found in electronic databases such as PubMed.

For more information or in case that you plan to join our research activities feel free to contact us.
Anatomy Department Members
Student Info
Last updated: May 2004