Metabolic diseases such as obesity and insulin resistance affect millions of people and increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These conditions are associated with profound changes in circulating hormones and metabolic signals, yet we still do not fully understand how this information gains access to the brain or how it is interpreted to regulate body weight and metabolism over time.

This project investigates specialized cellular interfaces that control the flow of metabolic information into brain regions responsible for maintaining energy balance. By determining how these interfaces change across healthy and disease-associated metabolic states, the project aims to uncover how the brain’s access to hormonal signals is regulated, and how this process may become disrupted in metabolic disease.

Using experimental models together with human biological material, the project will connect mechanistic discoveries in the brain to metabolic biology. The long-term goal is to identify new principles and potential strategies for restoring healthy metabolic regulation.