Prof. Dr. Markus Schwaninger, Dr. Helge Müller-Fielitz, Dr. Akila Chandrasekar, Dr. Julica Inderhees, Vanessa Neve, Andreea Constantinescu, Adriana Arrulo Pereira, Nina Feller, Frauke Spiecker

The organisms' survival depends on energy homeostasis, involving the control of neuroendocrine functions that integrate metabolic feedback. Tanycytes are glial cells lining the floor of the third ventricle in the median eminence of the hypothalamus which control the secretion of neuropeptides by hypothalamic neurons into the pituitary portal circulation and regulate blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid exchanges. Tanycytes actively shuttle metabolic signals to hypothalamic neurons that control food intake. The goal of the EU-funded WATCH project is to employ state-of-the-art technologies in systems neuroscience, mouse genetics, and translational research, to elucidate the role of tanycytes and provide new directions in biomarker research and therapeutic approaches for a variety of disorders that impair healthy ageing.

Rubén Nogueiras, University of Santiago, Spain

Vincent Prévot, INARM Lille, France