When the niche runs out: control of microglial resilience in repeated demyelination

We study the neuro-immune interface in aging, neurodegeneration and multiple sclerosis, and how single-cell and spatial technologies are shifting what we understand about it. Clinical experience and experimental models told us that injury become worse and body less able to repair with each attack. Using repeated demyelinating injuries at a single coordinate, we found that microglia retain their full transcriptional repertoire after every insult. What is lost is the supporting niche around them. Resilience is therefore not exhausted not only in the immune cell but also withdrawn from its environment.