Cytokine biology in the central nervous system under normal and inflammatory conditions (360G-Wellcome-211868_Z_18_Z)

Many neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) are caused by damage to neurons and glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS lesion development consistently involves an inflammatory component. Recent research suggests that numerous immune cytokines are highly expressed in the CNS lesions of these neurological disorder patients and they play an important role in the development and remission of CNS inflammation, tissue damage and repair. Thus, understanding the complex modulatory roles of these cytokines in CNS is the key to developing future effective therapeutic strategies for these diseases. It was recently observed that cytokines such as IL-33 and IL-22 closely correlate with the severity of CNS inflammation. This summer project aims to further understand the expression and function of these cytokines in CNS tissues under normal and inflammatory conditions using a mouse model of MS disease.