John Lukens

Efficient amyloid-β degradation in Alzheimer’s disease using SPYTACs: @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

JCI - Disruption of CSF-1 receptor-mediated metal ion homeostasis in the murine brain promotes neurodegenerative disease www.jci.org/articles/vie...

New work from the lab on how sickness reduces appetite. Turns out, it’s complicated :)

We focused on a single inflammatory cytokine, IL-1b, and even that reduces appetite via multiple mechanism.

Thanks to Nik Hayes for leading and sticking with this project and to everyone else who contributed!

Central neurons encode interleukin-1β signals and mediate stress-induced inflammation url: rupress.org/jem/article/...

Immunity in Alzheimer’s disease: From mechanisms to therapies @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

JCI - The hidden world of nanoplastics colliding with neurodegenerative diseases www.jci.org/articles/vie...
www.jci.org/assets/40885...

Endogenous retrovirus-derived RNA-DNA hybrids induce microglial synaptic pruning in autism models @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

China is waging war on Alzheimer’s. What can its approach teach the rest of the world? The country is facing a coming wave of dementia for its ageing population, and is investing in research into drugs, diagnostics and even surgery to prepare itself.

China is waging war on Alzheimer’s. What can its approach teach the rest of the world? www.nature.com/articles/d41... @nature.com

More than microglial depletion: PLX5622 activates the hepatic constitutive androstane receptor to alter anesthesia and addiction. @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Astrocyte-microglia crosstalk through Hevin and Toll-like receptor signaling controls developmental thalamocortical synapse refinement Microglia are key drivers of synapse refinement during development. Ramirez et al. show that astrocytes instruct this process through the secreted synaptogenic protein Hevin/Sparcl1. The proteolytical...

Astrocyte-microglia crosstalk through Hevin and Toll-like receptor signaling controls developmental thalamocortical synapse refinement: Neuron www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Liver exerkine reverses aging- and Alzheimer’s-related memory loss via vasculature Liver exercise factor GPLD1 rejuvenates blood-brain barrier integrity and reverses cognitive impairments in aging and Alzheimer’s disease models by targeting GPI-anchored proteins on brain endothelial...

Liver exerkine reverses aging- and Alzheimer’s-related memory loss via vasculature: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Autoimmune neuroinflammation leads to neuronal death via MIF nuclease-mediated parthanatos
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Myelin sheaths in the central nervous system can withstand damage and dynamically remodel Myelin damage is a hallmark of several neurological disorders, but how it occurs remains to be fully understood. In this study, we found that early damage in zebrafish and rodent demyelination models ...

Myelin sheaths in the central nervous system can withstand damage and dynamically remodel www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

PTP1B inhibition promotes microglial phagocytosis in Alzheimer’s disease models by enhancing SYK signaling | PNAS Amyloid β (Aβ) accumulation is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Emerging evidence suggests that impaired microglial Aβ phagocytosis is a key...

PTP1B inhibition promotes microglial phagocytosis in Alzheimer’s disease models by enhancing SYK signaling www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Generation and characterization of iPSC‐derived microglia for in vitro modeling of stimuli‐specific neuroimmune responses INTRODUCTION Microglia are macrophage-like brain resident immune cells known to express numerous Alzheimer's disease risk genes. Here we generated a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derive...

Generation and characterization of iPSC‐derived microglia for in vitro modeling of stimuli‐specific neuroimmune responses @alzdemjournals.bsky.social alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Meningeal blood vessel blockage enhances anti-glioblastoma immunity www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Repression of RIPK1 kinase by INPP5D inhibits expression of diverse proinflammatory mediators and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease risk factors @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Meningeal B cells: Emerging players at the brain border. @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Molecular features of human pathological tau distinguish tauopathy-associated dementias www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Wolf in sheep’s clothing: leveraging sheep to study how maternal immune activation contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders 🐑🐺
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mWkU3AAzz...

13th Annual Southeastern Immunology Symposium June 2-5, 2026 Asheville, NC
Register @ sis-inc.org

CRISPR screens in iPSC-derived neurons reveal principles of tau proteostasis: @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Clonal CD8+ T cells populate the leptomeninges and coordinate with immune cells in human degenerative brain diseases
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Peripheral cancer attenuates amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease via cystatin-c activation of TREM2: @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Ageing promotes microglial accumulation of slow-degrading synaptic proteins @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Diversity and immune dynamics of choroid plexus macrophages are shaped by distinct developmental origins
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Commensal-derived trehalose monocorynomycolate triggers γδ T cell-driven protective ocular barrier immunity: Immunity www.cell.com/immunity/ful... @cp-immunity.bsky.social

Nanoparticles hijack calvarial immune cells for CNS drug delivery and stroke therapy @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

A GDF-15–GFRAL axis controls autoimmune T cell responses during neuroinflammation - Nature Immunology Here the authors show that endogenous or therapeutically delivered GDF-15 activates brainstem neurons that trigger splenic β-adrenergic signaling. This, in turn, suppresses autoreactive T cells and re...

A GDF-15–GFRAL axis controls autoimmune T cell responses during neuroinflammation www.nature.com/articles/s41...

3 papers in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social today exploring the mechanistic connection between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis #MultipleSclerosis
cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...