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Neuroimmunology of
Host-Microbe Interaction

Research

Research

We use Drosophila to study the intricate interactions between microbes, the brain, and the immune system.

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  1. How does the brain sense the microbes?

  2. How does the brain inform the immune system about the infection?

  3. How is glia involved in it?

People

People
Features
News
News

Lab News

08/25/2025: Hannah starts her rotation!!! Welcome, Meryem and Tala, our FIRST two undergrads!

08/20/2025: Afiyfah has officially joined the lab!!!

05/20/2025: FIRST lab scientific outing @ GCC neuroinflammation workshop. Inspiring talks and discussion!

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04/25/2025: An interplay between BAT (microbes), FLY (brain), and SPIDER (immunity) 😂.

A genius artwork by Nathan.

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04/07/2025: Welcome Supurna and Afiyfah for rotating in the lab!

publications

Selected Publications

  1. Xu, W., Rustenhoven, J., Nelson, C. A., Dykstra, T., Ferreiro, A., Papadopoulos, Z., Burnham, C.D., Dantas, G., Fremont, D. H., Kipnis, J. (2023). A novel immune modulator IM33 mediates a glia-gut-neuronal axis that controls lifespan. Neuron 111(20): 3244-3254.e3248. Featured by Science Signaling, 16(809): eadl5530.

  2. Xu, W., Bao, P., Jiang, X., Wang, H., Qin, M., Wang, R., Wang, T., Yang, Y., Lorenzini, I., Liao, L., Sattler, R., Xu, J. (2019). Reactivation of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay protects against C9orf72 dipeptide-repeat neurotoxicity. Brain 142, 1349-1364.

  3. Xu, W., and Xu, J. (2018). C9orf72 Dipeptide Repeats Cause Selective Neurodegeneration and Cell-Autonomous Excitotoxicity in Drosophila Glutamatergic Neurons. J Neurosci 38, 7741-7752.

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