Our research contributes to a better understanding of the factors governing regenerative neurogenesis and axonal pathfinding in spinal cord regeneration. We are using the zebrafish model to identify fundamental mechanisms in vertebrates with clear translational implications for CNS injury and neurodegenerative diseases..
On March 13, 2025, leading experts gathered for an insightful webinar on stem cell-based approaches for spinal cord injury repair. Hosted by FENS CHET and SfN’s Neuroscience Training Committee, the event featured groundbreaking discussions on neurogenesis, stem cell secretomes, and engineered neural stem cells.
We are thrilled to share that the Women in Life Sciences Symposium 2025 was a great success! Hosted at the CRTD in Dresden by Prof. Mareike Albert and Prof. Franziska Knopf, the event brought together an inspiring community of female scientists for an afternoon of insightful discussions and networking.
We are delighted to share that Dr. Rachel Branch has successfully defended her PhD thesis! Rachel was the final PhD student from our lab at The University of Edinburgh, marking the end of an era.
Thomas gave a career development talk for the CMCB Postdoc Community meeting, discussing his experiences building and maintaining a new master’s program at the University of Edinburgh! The meeting was an engaging discussion about a career step that many in the Postdoc Community are heading toward.
The Becker Group has a new preprint on bioRxiv! The paper, “Microglia signals to fibroblasts and neural progenitors to control regenerative neurogenesis after spinal cord injury in zebrafish” was spearheaded by Alberto Docampo-Seara, and shows how microglia restricts/controls the neurogenic potential of neural progenitors by direct signaling to them and also by an indirect interaction with fibroblasts.
From October 7-11, 2024, our team attended the EMBO Workshop: The Molecular and Cellular Basis of Regeneration and Tissue Repair in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. It was an incredible week filled with exciting discussions, new insights, and great company in a stunning setting! Catherina, Thomas, Alberto, Rachel, Luisa, Markus, Özge, and Xiaobo all presented ongoing work in the group.
The Becker Group has a new publication in Life Science Alliance! The article, titled “Microglia are essential for tissue contraction in wound closure after brain injury in zebrafish larvae”, was led by Francois El-Daher. The study found that following traumatic brain injury in larval zebrafish, that microglia accumulate within the injury site and exert force in the inside of the injury site to pull the wound closed.
Catherina and Thomas presented our group’s work on spinal cord regeneration in two talks at the EMBO | The Company of Biologists Workshop - Axonal Degeneration and Regeneration meeting at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Okinawa, Japan! Sofiia Ushakova, a master’s student in the Becker Group presented her thesis work on Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) at this exciting workshop in Japan.
Catherina gave the keynote lecture and Thomas helped judge posters and talks at the 4th International Meeting of Portuguese Spinal Cord Injury Researchers held in Lisbon, Portugal! Her talk discussed the role of macrophages in regenerative neurogenesis following spinal cord injury in zebrafish based on the Group’s recent work. The meeting was organized by the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa (FMUL).
Once again this year, the Becker group will be showing you the beautiful world of zebrafish research at the CRTD as part of the Long Night of Science! This time, in addition to exciting insights into our research on spinal cord regeneration, you can expect lots of interactive tasks and stations for every age. You can find us on the third floor of the CRTD by following the zebrafish signs.
Marie Hoyer won the Dresden Excellence Award for her Master’s Thesis! Her project, "Tissue mechanics during spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish larvae,” was a collaborative project between the Becker Group and the group of Otger Campàs (Excellence Cluster Physics of Life), supervised by Stephen Enos (Becker Group) and with the substantial support of Shuo-Ting Yen (Campàs Group). The award is issued each year by the City of Dresden to four awardees, to recognize excellent scholarship at all academic levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s, Ph.D., Habilitation). Congratulations Marie!
Catherina will be speaking at the UK Zebrafish Network Special Interest Group Meeting, hosted at the Crick Institute in London at the invitation of Dr. Konstantinos Kalyviotis.
Catherina was invited by Dr. Phon Nguyen to give a lecture as part of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Institute Curie’s Keynote Seminar Series.
The Becker Group is hiring a post-doc! The position focuses on analysis of genomics data, and the full information on the position and application process is available here. The position is available immediately, and is initially limited to 18 months.