The Metabolic Mosaic: Illuminating the Interplay of Diet, Microbiome, Brain, and Metabolism
Event details
| Date | 28.01.2025 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 10:00 |
| Speaker | Carlos Ribeiro, Ph.D., Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon (PT) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
ONE-DAY METABOLISM MINI-SYMPOSIUM
(talk one / next talk)
Abstract:
A balanced intake of nutrients is essential for health, wellbeing, and aging. To maintain nutrient homeostasis, animals adapt their foraging strategies, physiology, and metabolism to meet immediate and future demands. We aim to understand how animals decide what to eat and how their metabolism aligns with physiological needs, focusing on the interplay between brain-body interactions, metabolic processes, and the microbiome, a key player in shaping these adaptations. Our research uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model to investigate nutritional decision-making at the interface of behavior, metabolism, microbiome, and physiology. By leveraging tools such as automated behavioral analyses, metabolomics, connectomics, neuronal activity imaging, and precise nutritional and microbial manipulations, we explore how internal states and environmental factors influence dietary choices and metabolic responses. I will discuss how this interdisciplinary approach is uncovering how commensal microbes reprogram metabolic pathways to mitigate the effects of imbalanced diets. By integrating these insights within a whole-animal context, we aim to develop a unified framework for understanding how animals maintain nutrient homeostasis and adapt to dietary challenges, providing insights into fitness and metabolic resilience across species.
Bio:
Carlos Ribeiro is a Senior Group Leader at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, and a founding member of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Trained at the Biozentrum in Basel and the IMP in Vienna, his early work focused on organogenesis and neural circuit development. His lab works at the interface of behavior, metabolism, microbiome, and physiology to uncover conserved mechanisms that regulate how organisms decide what to eat and how these decisions impact their health and wellbeing. He has significantly advanced our understanding of how nutrients, organismal physiology, and reproductive states influence nutrient selection through neuronal circuits and molecular mechanisms. His lab also emphasizes the development and early adoption of novel technologies to tackle complex scientific questions, enabling innovative approaches to studying metabolism, brain, and behavior. More recently, his laboratory has characterized how specific gut microbes interact metabolically to regulate food cravings and reproduction. Carlos is an elected member of EMBO and has taken on international leadership roles, including serving as Secretary General of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). His current research places a strong focus on connectomics, with efforts to map neuronal circuits that regulate behavior, providing a framework to address fundamental biological questions.
Zoom link for attending remotely, if needed: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/68708003718
(talk one / next talk)
Abstract:
A balanced intake of nutrients is essential for health, wellbeing, and aging. To maintain nutrient homeostasis, animals adapt their foraging strategies, physiology, and metabolism to meet immediate and future demands. We aim to understand how animals decide what to eat and how their metabolism aligns with physiological needs, focusing on the interplay between brain-body interactions, metabolic processes, and the microbiome, a key player in shaping these adaptations. Our research uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model to investigate nutritional decision-making at the interface of behavior, metabolism, microbiome, and physiology. By leveraging tools such as automated behavioral analyses, metabolomics, connectomics, neuronal activity imaging, and precise nutritional and microbial manipulations, we explore how internal states and environmental factors influence dietary choices and metabolic responses. I will discuss how this interdisciplinary approach is uncovering how commensal microbes reprogram metabolic pathways to mitigate the effects of imbalanced diets. By integrating these insights within a whole-animal context, we aim to develop a unified framework for understanding how animals maintain nutrient homeostasis and adapt to dietary challenges, providing insights into fitness and metabolic resilience across species.
Bio:
Carlos Ribeiro is a Senior Group Leader at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, and a founding member of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. Trained at the Biozentrum in Basel and the IMP in Vienna, his early work focused on organogenesis and neural circuit development. His lab works at the interface of behavior, metabolism, microbiome, and physiology to uncover conserved mechanisms that regulate how organisms decide what to eat and how these decisions impact their health and wellbeing. He has significantly advanced our understanding of how nutrients, organismal physiology, and reproductive states influence nutrient selection through neuronal circuits and molecular mechanisms. His lab also emphasizes the development and early adoption of novel technologies to tackle complex scientific questions, enabling innovative approaches to studying metabolism, brain, and behavior. More recently, his laboratory has characterized how specific gut microbes interact metabolically to regulate food cravings and reproduction. Carlos is an elected member of EMBO and has taken on international leadership roles, including serving as Secretary General of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). His current research places a strong focus on connectomics, with efforts to map neuronal circuits that regulate behavior, providing a framework to address fundamental biological questions.
Zoom link for attending remotely, if needed: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/68708003718
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Kristina Schoonjans, & Prof. Bart Deplancke, School of Life Sciences, EPFL
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD