Pauline SPEDER
Brain plasticity in response to the environment
Brain plasticity in response to the environment
KEYWORDS: Neural stem cells
Drosophila melanogaster
Niche, glial cells, blood-brain barrier
Dynamics of cellular communication, cellular adaptation
Drosophila melanogaster
Niche, glial cells, blood-brain barrier
Dynamics of cellular communication, cellular adaptation
The brain is strongly influenced by environmental factors, including nutritional availability or infectious attacks. It is able to sense and adapt to various changes by setting up strategies that will allow it to resist their deleterious impacts or to take advantage of their positive effects. My team is interested in understanding how the brain reacts to environmental changes. We are particularly focusing on the role of three cell populations which are known to interact with each other during homeostatis : neural stem cells, glial niches and blood-brain barrier cells. Using Drosophila as a model system, we are investigating how they collectively integrate environmental changes and how their architecture and interactions are at play in these mechanisms. This knowledge will pave the way to deciphering the brain’s response under disease conditions including bacterial infection, neurodegeneration or cancer.
