Our research focus is on psychoneuroimmunology and we investigate the crosstalk of the immune system with the brain and the mind. I'm particularly interested in deciphering subgroups of patients based on their immune status to find tailored treatments for them. Recent developments in our field include, for instance, the development of PET ligands, but also include advanced technologies such as RNA sequencing, single cell RNA sequencing, and spatial RNA sequencing to decipher immune-based therapies.
Our protocol addresses the challenge of quantifying microglial engulfment of synaptic material, which is crucial to understand the role in brain function as well as in disease pathology. Our protocol offers a fast and reliable quantification of engulfed synaptic material by microglia, and therefore provides insights into functional activity of microglia. Our protocol will inspire other research groups to include more functional assays in their research, such as engulfed motosynaptosomes, and this will lead a better and more comprehensive understanding of the role of microglia in neuroimmune interactions.
