The metabolic interplay between neuroblasts and their glial niche during Drosophila brain development

• Applicant: Dr. Ioannis Nellas
• Subject Area: Developmental Neurobiology ; Developmental Biology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565835347

The brain is an incredible organ responsible for many functions, from the reception and processing of stimuli, to animal movement and complex behavior. All these functions come with a high metabolic cost, making the brain one of the most energy-consuming organs. Therefore, studying the metabolism of different brain cells is key to understanding how the brain works. The brain consists of oxidative neurons and glycolytic glia, who exhibit a fascinating metabolic relationship between with each other. During the last 30 years there has been increasing evidence supporting the astrocyte-to-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) hypothesis in both vertebrates and invertebrates. I assume that also neural stem cells (NSCs) and their glial niche have a close metabolic relationship to support the NSCs nutritionally. However, NSC metabolism and hence their needs, are still far from understood. Moreover, when NSCs differentiate to either neurons or glial cells, their metabolism seems to change. To better understand the interactions of NSCs and their niche, I will use non-invasive methods to study both NSC and glial cellular metabolism in the intact nervous system. In combination with cell-type specific genetic manipulation, this will allow understanding the metabolic crosstalk between NSCs and glial cells during different stages of brain development and reveal potential interdependencies between the cell types. Further, it will allow understanding the effect of metabolic perturbation on NSC stemness and proliferative capacity and thus development of the nervous system.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Chile
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Alejandro San Martin, Ph.D.