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Ana Domingos
Associate Professor of Neuroscience
The Domingos laboratory researches neuroimmune mechanisms underlying obesity. They discovered the sympathetic neuro-adipose junction, a functional synapse-like connection between white adipocytes and the sympathetic nervous system (Cell 2015). They found that this neuro-adipose junction is necessary and sufficient for fat mass reduction via norepinephrine (NE) signaling (Cell 2015, Nature Comm 2017). They then discovered Sympathetic neuron-Associated Macrophages (SAMs) that directly import and metabolize NE. Abrogation of SAM function promotes long-term amelioration of obesity independently of food intake (Nature Medicine, 2017).