Our main interest is research into the central nervous regulation of eating behavior and energy homeostasis. In most modern industrialized societies, the majority of the population is exposed to an obesogenic environment, i.e. living conditions that promote morbid obesity and ultimately promote life-threatening secondary diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart attack and stroke in those affected. Obesity also increases the likelihood of severe Covid-19 disease progression and is considered a risk factor for neurological diseases.

In this context, WG 1 focuses on obesity, a diet-related, systemic metabolic disease. The overarching question in this context is how eating habits, diets and natural food components influence the function of our brain and thus our behavior and health.

In addition, we investigate the physiological and pathological relevance of tissue macrophages for the structural and functional plasticity of defined brain regions. We want to understand how nutrition and other environmental factors affect the functioning of microglia in defined CNS regions.

Focus I:

Lipidergic neurotransmitters in neural and neuroendocrine circuits ( DFG-GEPRIS)

Focus II:

Metabolism- and environment-dependent dynamics of intracellular organelles in neural and neuroendocrine circuits

Focus III:

Microglia-dependent remodeling in the hypothalamus

Focus IV:

Characterization of macrophages in circumventricular organs

Prof. Dr. Jae Geun Kim, Incheon Universitös, Südkorea

PD Dr. Martin Krüger, Universität Leipzig

Dr. Luis Varela, Basque Science System, Bilbao, Spanien

Prof. Dr. Tamas Horvath, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA