Ivan de Araujo, D.Phil.
Director—Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Use neurobiological tools to map and manipulate the activity of gut innervating neurons upon arrival of allergens to the intestine.
Ivan de Araujo is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society. His research focuses on identifying and characterizing the largescale neural networks that link the body to the brain, with an emphasis on the gut-brain axis.
The goal of Ivan de Araujo’s research with FASI is to understand allergen-sensing pathways in the gut, and how these signals access the central nervous system. His project will focus on neuronal mechanisms of altered gastric motility in food allergy. In order to investigate this, he will use neurobiological tools to map and manipulate the activity of gut innervating neurons upon arrival of allergens to the intestine. The aim is to trace the circuitry linking allergen-sensing cells to motility controlling neurons in the gut. These investigations may lead to novel gut-brain models of allergen sensing, and potential ways to peripherally switch allergic signals off.
Featured Publications
Han W, Tellez LA, Perkins MH, Perez IO, Qu T, Ferreira J, Ferreira TL, Quinn D, Liu ZW, Gao XB, Kaelberer MM, Bohórquez DV, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, de Lartigue G, de Araujo IE (2018) A Neural Circuit for Gut-Induced Reward. Cell 175:665–678 PMID: 30245012
Tellez LA, Han W, Zhang X, Ferreira TL, Perez IO, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, van den Pol AN, de Araujo IE (2016) Separate circuitries encode the hedonic and nutritional values of sugar. Nature Neuroscience 19(3):465-70. PMID: 26807950
Han W, Tellez LA, Niu J, Medina S, Ferreira TL, Zhang X, Su J, Tong J, Schwartz GJ, van den Pol A, de Araujo IE (2016) Striatal Dopamine Links Gastrointestinal Rerouting to Altered Sweet Appetite. Cell Metabolism 23(1):103-12. PMID: 26698915
Tellez LA, Medina S, Han W, Ferreira JG, Ren X, Lam T, Schwartz GJ, de Araujo IE (2013) A gut lipid messenger links excess dietary fat to dopamine deficiency. Science 341:800-2. PMID: 23950538