Séminaire Imad Dr Diego V.Bohorquez "Transduction of a sweet sense from gut to brain"

Séminaire du Dr. Diego V. Bohórquez invité par TENS et l'IMAD

Mercredi 4 juillet 2018 à 14h00

Dr. Diego V. Bohórquez (Assistant Professor, Duke Medicine-GI and Neurobiology)

Titre: "Transduction of a sweet sense from gut to brain"

The brain perceives the environment through specialized sensory neuroepithelial circuits. In the tongue, for instance, taste receptor cells transduce chemical signals by synapsing with the glossopharyngeal nerve. In the gut, however, the putative sensory epithelial cell known as the enteroendocrine cell is thought to convey signals to the nerves only through endocrine mechanisms-hence its name.
Here, we unveil a monosynaptic link between gut sensory epithelial cells and vagal nodose neurons. This neuroepithelial circuit is capable of transducing signals from nutrients, such as glucose, within milliseconds, opening a physical path from gut
lumen to brain.

Dr. Bohórquez is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University. His expertise is in gut-brain sensory neural circuits. Dr. Bohórquez's training is unique from a scientific and an academic perspective. He has a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Physiology, and postdoctoral training in the Neurosciences. Dr. Bohórquez's research focuses on how sensory stimuli from food and bacteria in the gut are transduced to the brain via vagus nerve. This is the neural circuitry basis for gut stimuli to modulate brain function and behavior. It is also an area of research at the core of treating behavioral disorders such as obesity, anorexia, or autism. Dr. Bohórquez is known for his discovery of a sensory neuroepithelial circuit in the gutanalogous to that transducing the sense of taste in the tongue (J Clin Invest. 2015;125(2):782). His work has been featured in Nature, NeuroPod, ScienceDaily, Wired magazine, TED ideas blog and The New Yorker.
For more information visit : www.gutbrains.com