Ilana Gabanyi Lab

Neuronal responses to bacterial signals

The NeuroBiota lab studies the interactions between the microbial community of the gastrointestinal track and the central nervous system, known as the microbiota-gut-brain axis. A very exciting, fast-growing field of research.

Our focus is direct interactions between gut-bacterial signals and brain neurons. Ilana has shown, in her post-doc, that microbe-derived compounds are found in the brain and are able to influence neuronal activity. Moreover, some of these interactions are sex- and age-dependent (Gabanyi et al., Science 2022).

The lab is currently investigating intriguing follow-up questions derived from this work:

• Which factors (e.g. hormones) influence the neuronal response to bacterial products?
• How and which bacterial signals are able to reach the brain and alter neuronal activity?
• What are the downstream responses to these bacterial-induced neuronal alterations?

The research team combines techniques from different fields, including 3D brain imaging, microbial sequencing, and transgenic mice, to dissect the mechanisms of microbiota-neuron crosstalk.