Neuroseminar: Blanca Aldana

Section of Pathobiological Sciences, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, UCPH.

Title: Microglial Immunometabolic Reprogramming and Neuronal Homeostasis: A Metabolic Conversation During Neuroinflammation?

Abstract: Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain and key guardians of neuronal homeostasis. Equipped with highly adaptable metabolic programs, these cells sense inflammatory and disease-associated signals and reshape their use of energy substrates accordingly. In neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, this immunometabolic plasticity may become maladaptive, altering the metabolic environment that supports neuronal bioenergetics and neurotransmitter balance. The work of my lab aims to decipher how inflammatory activation reprograms microglial metabolism, how this affects the handling of glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids, and how these changes influence microglia–neuron metabolic crosstalk. To address these questions, my research team combines stable isotope tracing, mass spectrometry-based functional metabolomics, live-cell bioenergetics, and functional cellular assays in microglial models exposed to inflammatory and disease-relevant stimuli. These approaches allow us to follow metabolic substrate fate and define how inflammatory microglia remodel their metabolism. These mechanisms, and their potential contribution to neuronal metabolic changes during neuroinflammation, will be the topic of this talk.

Please join us prior to the talk for coffee and cookies.