Dr. Hargus' research focuses on pluripotent stem cells and their application in developmental biology and disease modeling with a special focus on frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Dr. Hargus and colleagues have derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from patients with FTD carrying mutations in the gene encoding the microtubule-associated protein tau as an in vitro model for FTD. These mutations lead to abundant deposition of hyperphosphorylated tau protein within neurons and glial cells in various brain regions including the frontotemporal lobes and the brain stem.

Dr. Hargus' aim is to identify mechanisms that lead to neural degeneration in FTD. Dr. Hargus and colleagues apply optimized differentiation protocols to efficiently derive neurons and astrocytes from patient-iPS cells and from CRISPR/CAS9-gene corrected control cells. They currently study metabolic profiles in FTD neurons and astrocytes and they determine phenotypes in these cells at a single cell level by applying single cell RNA sequencing.

Education and Training:
MD: University of Lübeck, Germany, 2004
PhD: University of Hamburg / Center for Systems Neuroscience Hannover, Germany, 2007
Postdoc: Harvard Medical School, 2008-2011
Residency (Neuropathology): University of Münster and Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster, Germany, 2011-2014
Residency / Fellowship (Anatomic and Neuropathology): Columbia University Irving Medical Center / NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, 2014-2018