Symposium: Heterogeneity in Neuroscience – Finding Unity in Uniqueness

Marie-Ève Tremblay works on neurobiology of aging and cognition. She investigates microglia-synapse interactions and develops non-invasive brain imaging.

Microglia are the immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). They play essential roles which are important for CNS development, maturation, activity, plasticity and integrity, but also behaviour and cognition, across the lifespan. There is currently an exponential growth of microglial research pertaining to their roles, interactions with other CNS cells, including neurons and astrocytes, and the underlying mechanisms. This work is increasingly revealing that microglia are diverse, comprised of different states which perform different functions. This discovery promises to provide selective targets for therapeutic intervention across a wide range of disease conditions in which microglia were found to be implicated.At this stage in the field, I think it is especially important to unravel how environmental risk factors for disease, including chronic stress, sleep disturbances and infections, in addition to aging and pathology, influence microglial states and their function. My lab is using complementary approaches to assess microglial metabolism, ultrastructure, morphology, and molecular signature to help unravel the outcomes of various environmental factors and lifestyle elements along the aging trajectory. My presentation will focus on recent nomenclature guidelines in the field, discuss microglial diversity, and present some of our work on the dark microglia, which are suggested to play a key role in remodeling of the brain.