The international Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology, which was established in 2002 and awards $25,000 annually to young scientists who’ve advanced our understanding of the brain and nervous system, has chosen Ana Filipa Cardoso as a prize finalist. Cardoso’s essay describing her work might be published in Science magazine on 4 November, alongside the essays of a second finalist and the grand prize winner.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a master’s degree in Health Sciences from the University of Minho, which introduced her to the sector of immunology, Cardoso embarked upon a PhD within the laboratory of Henrique Veiga-Fernandes on the Champalimaud Foundation to check the role of neuro-immune interactions in metabolism.

Cardoso’s mouse study revealed how signals from the brain burn belly fat, also often called “visceral” fat. Visceral fat comprises not only fat cells, but additionally nerve fibres and other cell types, including immune cells, which promote fat metabolism. Cardoso found that nerve cells send a “fat-burning” command to those immune cells via an unexpected mediator, mesenchymal stem cells, which until recently have been largely ignored.

Furthermore, after a series of painstaking experiments, Cardoso managed to discover the last word source of the fat-burning command: a structure buried deep throughout the brain called the hypothalamus, which controls many critical bodily functions, from hunger and thirst to body temperature and sleep.

Excess visceral fat is probably the most dangerous type of obesity, and has been related to multiple cancers and heart problems. Cardoso’s findings make clear the natural brain-body mechanisms that reduce visceral fat, and open up several potential therapeutic approaches that may artificially manipulate this fat-burning circuit to diminish fat stores.

Indeed, armed with this latest knowledge of how the nervous and immune systems interact to manage fat tissue, Cardoso is now working on the biopharmaceutical company LiMM Therapeutics, based on the Champalimaud Foundation, to translate this research into clinical applications and to fight the increasing prevalence of obesity and its related illnesses.

Source:

Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown