Michael Heneka studied medicine at the University of Tübingen. He received clinical training in Neurology at the University of Tübingen, University of Münster and the University of Bonn. He directed the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry-Neurology at the University Hospital Bonn and led the Neurodegenerative Disease unit at the Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE). He is further adjunct professor at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. In mid 2021, he became the director of the LCSB - Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine at the University of Luxembourg. He also holds an adjunct professorship at the University of Bonn and heads the Department of Neuroinflammation at the Institut of Innate Immunity at the University Hospital Bonn.
The Michael Heneka laboratory studies the interaction between the innate and adaptive immunity and the central nervous system. Inflammatory changes represent a common hallmark in neurodegenerative disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Immune mechanisms are involved in the development and progression of these neurodegenerative disorders and can execute neuroprotective as well as detrimental effects.
Our basic laboratory research aims at understanding molecular mechanisms of inflammatory regulation in a variety of neurodegenerative disease by using novel preclinical mouse models and state-of-the-art techniques such as two-photon in vivo laser scanning microscopy, optogenetics, transcriptome analysis and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The current clinical research program is focussing on several aspects of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases with the goal of developing new biomarkers and medical intervention programs.
