Ukpong Eyo
University of Virginia, VA·Neuroscience
The brain's own immune cells do more than fight infection. Microglia, which live throughout the brain, and related cells called border-associated macrophages also help keep blood flowing and calm overactive neurons.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Microbiology & Immunology
Physiology
- Topics
neuroscience
neuroimmunology
microglia
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Distinguish the roles of microglia at capillaries and perivascular macrophages at arterioles and venules in maintaining resting vessel structure and blood flow, using longitudinal two-photon imaging in living mice.
- Test whether the enzyme COX1 in brain myeloid cells is needed for blood vessels to widen in response to hypercapnia (raised carbon dioxide), using microglial COX1 deletion and in vivo imaging.
- Test whether microglia reduce the severity of hyperthermia-induced status epilepticus in mice and shape brain inflammation, using established microglia elimination approaches.
- Determine whether P2Y12R, a receptor found only on microglia, drives their protective effect during seizures and affects progression to temporal lobe epilepsy after early-life heat-induced seizures in a new mouse model.
More about the research
These grants test how these myeloid cells, a family of immune cells, shape two problems: blood flow in the brain, which is disrupted in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, and prolonged seizures in young children.
Why it matters
Brain blood vessel problems appear early in cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Identifying how immune cells control vessel size and blood flow could point to targeted therapies for these conditions. Febrile seizures affect 2–5% of young children, and prolonged ones raise later epilepsy risk. Showing that microglia and their P2Y12R receptor limit seizures could support new strategies for managing pediatric seizures and preventing epilepsy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ana Beatriz De Paula E Silva
University of Utah, UT·Neuroscience·Early-career
Track when TREM1, a receptor that amplifies inflammation, appears on brain-infiltrating macrophages in TMEV-infected mice, and test whether genetic or drug blocking of TREM1 reduces acute seizures measured by video-EEG.
Barna Dudok
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Neuroscience·Early-career
Test whether CCK and PV basket cells, two types of inhibitory neurons, are active in different brain states in a kainate mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy, using two-photon calcium imaging with hippocampal field recordings.
Ivan Soltesz
Stanford University, CA·Neuroscience
Identify non-invasive behavioral biomarkers that predict chronic seizures and death, using MoSeq AI analysis of 3D video in mouse models of temporal lobe epilepsy and Dravet syndrome.
The school
University of Virginia: 43 labs on PI Pages, $814M a year on research, 413 research doctorates a year.
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