Christian Göritz is a Principal Investigator at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. He is also the Director of the Strategic Research Area for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. Christian studied biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin and performed his PhD in neuroscience within a Max Planck / CNRS cooperation program. For his postdoctoral training, he joined the laboratory of Jonas Frisén at Karolinska Institutet to study tissue regeneration in the central nervous system (CNS). Together with his research group, Christian studies scarring and repair mechanisms in response to spinal cord injury, with the goal of improving regeneration.
Spinal cord injury most often leads to persistent loss of bodily functions. One important biological reason why functional deficits become permanent is the formation of a scar that blocks the regeneration of neuronal connections (axons). In our research, we explore the origin and function of scar tissue and investigate how the fibrotic scar component influences axonal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. We previously discovered a specific subpopulation of cells surrounding blood vessels (perivascular cells) as the main source of fibrotic scar tissue following a variety of CNS injuries. Perivascular-derived stromal fibroblasts mediate wound closure and are therefore essential for re-establishing tissue integrity after injury, but at the same time constitute the long-term persistent fibrotic scar. We have shown that attenuation of perivascular-derived scarring leads to improved nerve fiber regeneration and functional recovery. Thus, we believe that modulation of fibrotic scarring represents a promising therapeutic strategy for treating CNS injury, which we continue to explore.