Jean Pierre Pallais

I graduated with a B.S in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. I was expecting to study strictly neuroscience at the time, being somewhat naïve to what neuroscience is truly all about. That was until I started working in Dr. Catherine Kotz’s lab, in which I was studying neuroscience but in the context of physiology. This exposure gave birth to a passion that I didn’t know that I had, that being the role of the brain in regulating our metabolic physiology. Moreso specifically, looking at how aging and neurodegenerative diseases take a huge toll on our physiology as a whole. Perhaps I started off with a very narrow vision on what I wanted to study, but my time working in an IBP lab really inspired me to continue with my studies by pursuing a PhD in Physiology.

My project is on the role of microglial cells, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, in the regulation of our metabolic physiology. Specifically, we focus on a particular ligand/receptor interaction that only occurs on microglia in the CNS, yet it somehow leads to downstream metabolic modulation. This brings to light how the immune system communicates with the central nervous system under healthy circumstances and that this communication becomes disrupted and maladaptive in the context of obesity for example.