Helmholtz Munich

Deputy Director and Head of Astrocyte-Neuron Network Unit, IDO

“Astrocytes were until recently considered less relevant than neurons, but we provide evidence supporting that the functioning of those glial cells is required for the brain governs systemic metabolism including blood pressure in obesity”

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Career

Prof. Dr. García-Cáceres was originally recruited to the Helmholtz Munich in 2012 from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid as a Postdoctoral Scientist, and in 2015 was promoted to lead the Astrocyte-Neuron Network Unit at the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity. Since then, she has established and consolidated her own research group focused on studying the properties and physiological consequences of the communication between neurons and astrocytes, aiming to understand the role of those glial cells in physiological and pathological aspects of brain function in the neuroendocrine control of metabolism. Her work was awarded by the prestigious ERC Starting Grant and has already resulted in a paradigm shift in how glucose gets into the brain and how hypothalamic astrocytes tune sympathetic outflow towards cardiovascular target organs for controlling blood pressure.

Fields of Work and Expertise

Obesity neuroendocrinologyhypothalamusgliaastrocytes

"Our goal is to further expand our current knowledge not only with an outstanding basic research value, but also with a translational potential for clinical research e.g., opening new avenues based on astrocyte-directed therapies over neuronal approaches to reset the homeostatic activity of hypothalamic circuits for obesity prevention and treatment strategies."

Professional Background

2021

W2 Professor

W2 Professor of Neuroendocrinology of Systems Metabolism at the Faculty of Medicine of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and the Helmholtz Munich.

2018

Deputy Director at the Institute

Deputy Director at the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity at Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.

2018

Co-leadership and coordinator

Co-leadership and coordinator of the Brain Academy at the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and Associate Investigator of Munich Cluster For Systems Neurology (Synergy).

2015

Head of the Astrocyte-Neuron Networks

Head of the Astrocyte-Neuron Networks Unit at the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Diabetes Center at Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.

2022
DAG Research Award

2021
Awarded by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for the establishment of W2 professorship

2018
ERC Starting Grant (ERC-ST2017) by European Research Council. Project: Astrocyte-Neuronal Crosstalk in Obesity and Diabetes (Project number: 757393)

2017
Awarded by ERA-NET NEURON for Excellent Paper in Neuroscience (EPNA) 2017. Astrocytic Insulin Signaling Couples Brain Glucose Uptake with Nutrient Availability. Cell. 2016 Aug 11;166(4):867-80

More on PubMed

2023 Mar 7 Cell Metab.

1. González-García I, García-Clavé E, Cebrian-Serrano A, Contreras R, Le Thuc O, Xu Y, Gruber G, Legutko B, Lintelmann J, Adamski J, Wurst W, Müller TD, Woods SC, Pfluger P, Tschöp MH, Fisette A, García-Cáceres C.

Estradiol regulates leptin sensitivity to control feeding via hypothalamic Cited1

2023 Mar Nature

Zani F, Blagih J, Gruber T, Buck MD, Jones N, Hennequart M, Newell CL, Pilley SE, Soro-Barrio P, Kelly G, Legrave NM, Cheung EC, Gilmore IS, Gould AP, Garcia-Caceres C, Vousden KH.

The dietary sweetener sucralose is a negative modulator of T cell-mediated responses

2022 Jul 8. Glia

Lutomska LM, Miok V, Krahmer N, González García I, Gruber T, Le Thuc O, Murat CD, Legutko B, Sterr M, Saher G, Lickert H, Müller TD, Ussar S, Tschöp MH, Lutter D, García-Cáceres C.

Diet triggers specific responses of hypothalamic astrocytes in time and region dependent manner

2021 Apr 30 Cell Metab.

Gruber T, Pan C, Contreras-Cardone R., Le Thuc O., Legutko B., Ruiz-Ojeda FJ, Fuente-Fernández M., García-Villalón AL., González-Hedström D., Houben AJHM., Müller TD., Ussar S., Pfluger PT., Woods SC., Joris PJ., Ertürk A., Granado M., Horvath TL., Tschöp MH., García-Cáceres C

Obesity-associated hyperleptinemia alters the gliovascular interface of the hypothalamus to promote hypertension

2019 Jan Nat Neurosci.

García-Cáceres C., Balland E., Prevot V., Luquet S., Woods S.C., Koch M., Horvath T.L., Yi CX., Chowen J.A., Verkhratsky A., Araque A., Bechmann I., Tschöp M.H.

Role of astrocytes, microglia, and tanycytes in brain control of systemic metabolism

2016 Aug 11 Cell.

García-Cáceres C, Quarta C, Varela L, Gao Y, Gruber T, Legutko B, Jastroch M, Johansson P, Ninkovic J, Yi CX, Le Thuc O, Szigeti-Buck K, Cai W, Meyer CW, Pfluger PT, Fernandez AM, Luquet S, Woods SC, Torres-Alemán I, Kahn CR, Götz M, Horvath TL, Tschöp MH.

Astrocytic Insulin Signaling Couples Brain Glucose Uptake with Nutrient Availability