About this event
Explore the forefront of neuroscience with the LCSB Neuroscience Lecture Series, featuring scientific presentations from internationally renowned experts in various disciplines of neuroscience.
Meet the speaker! One-on-one meeting opportunities with the speaker can be arranged by emailing Murielle Moes.
Neuro-glia-immune crosstalk at the synapse in neurodegeneration.
Microglia are critical contributors to synapse function and health. Emerging data suggest that microglial cell states, including the synapse phagocytosing ones, are influenced not only by changes in neuronal activity but also by surrounding glia including astrocytes and neighbouring immune cells including perivascular macrophages. Further, cell-cell crosstalk influencing synaptic fate can also involve adaptive immune signalling across brain borders. I will discuss potential modulators of neuro-glia-immune interactions with relevance in neurodegenerative diseases.
About the speaker
Dr Soyon Hong received her PhD in Neuroscience in 2012 from Harvard University, after studying with Dennis Selkoe on amyloid-induced synaptic degeneration. Her post-doctoral work with Beth Stevens at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School led to the identification of microglia as cellular mediators of synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease models. For these works, Soyon received the Junior Faculty Award at international ADPD Kenes (2015), Harvard Lefler Fellowship (2015-2017) and Charles King Trust Fellowship (2016-2018). Soyon started her independent lab in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London in October 2018. She was awarded Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Collaborators Grant in 2020-2026, and in 2023 was named the Alzheimer’s Research UK David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year. The Hong lab studies neuro-glia-immune interactions at the synapse. In particular, the lab is interested in how microglia and astrocytes coordinate synaptic homeostasis, and how this glial crosstalk breaks down in disease, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The lab also studies immune signalling across brain borders and how they modulate neuronal and synaptic fate.
The Neuroscience Lecture Series is supported by the Schick Foundation.
