Mark Alkema
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Neuroscience
Bacteria living in the gut can change how animals behave, and people with depression, migraine, autism and other brain disorders often have altered gut microbes. It is still unclear how gut microbes, diet and the nervous system talk to one another.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
- Topics
gut-brain axis
microbiome
gut microbiota
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2031
What they work on
- Identify the neuronal targets and molecular pathways through which nitric oxide made by gut bacteria suppresses seizures in C. elegans unc-2/CaV2α gain-of-function mutants, a worm model of a migraine-linked calcium channel disorder.
- Screen individual human gut microbes, including anaerobic species, in worms colonized with human microbiota to find bacteria and metabolites that alter behavior.
- Test whether tyramine (an adrenaline-like signal) and serotonin inhibit each other to switch C. elegans between foraging and escape, using behavioral assays and genetics.
- Determine how the nervous system and metabolic signals control intestinal calcium rhythms, and how gut-released insulin-like and neuropeptides encode hunger, satiety and stress, using real-time imaging, mutants and metabolomics.
More about the research
Both projects use the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans to answer that question. The worm has a simple, fully mapped nervous system, a simple gut and diet, a transparent body and powerful genetic tools. One project studies how specific bacteria affect neural function. The other studies how brain and gut signals together decide which behavior an animal performs.
Why it matters
Gut microbes and gut-brain signaling are linked to migraine, depression, anxiety, autism and neurodegeneration, but the causal mechanisms remain unclear. Identifying specific helpful bacteria, their metabolites such as nitric oxide, and the conserved pathways they act through could guide the selection of probiotics or other microbiota-based approaches to ease symptoms of neurological disorders. The work may also define general rules for how gut signals shape mental and physical health.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alexandra Byrne
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Neuroscience
Determine how TIR-1/SARM1, a conserved protein that usually drives axon degeneration, instead protects C. elegans neurons from damage caused by excess acetylcholine receptor activity or paraquat-induced oxidative stress.
Jagan Srinivasan
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA·Neuroscience
Define how NLP-3 neuropeptides drive hermaphrodite avoidance of the pheromone ascaroside-8 in C. elegans, using CRISPR mutants, rescue with synthetic peptides, and quantitative behavioral assays.
Hongkyun Kim
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, IL·Neuroscience
Test whether a high rate of neurotransmitter release lowers the number of CaV2/UNC-2 calcium channels at C. elegans synapses through negative feedback, using a wide range of mutants that disrupt the release of synaptic vesicles (neurotransmitter-filled sacs).
The school
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School: 29 labs on PI Pages, $350M a year on research, 55 research doctorates a year.
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