The Laboratory of Microglial Phagocytosis,
Neuroinflammation & Neurodegeneration
The Laboratory of Guy Brown at the University of Cambridge
Biography
Professor Guy C. Brown received his Ph.D. in 1986 from the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge, then had a College Research Fellowship from St Catharine's College for 3 years. He then moved to the Department of Physiology, University College London, and after 18 months transferred to a Royal Society Research Fellowship at the Department of Biochemistry at UCL. In 1994 he returned to Cambridge with the Royal Society Research Fellowship, and is now a Professor of Cellular Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry,
University of Cambridge. His research has been funded by: the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, the European Union, the Wellcome Trust, the British Heart Foundation, Astrazeneca, Ely Lilly, and Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Current Research:
We are interested in the mechanisms of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain. Mouse models of disease and cultured brain cells are used to investigate how microglia become activated by inflammatory stimuli and how such microglia damage or protect neurons. We are particularly interested in the roles of microglial phagocytosis in neurodegeneration, as we have found that inflamed microglia can phagocytose (i.e. eat) live neurons and neuronal parts such as synapses. And so we are trying to find ways to prevent this.
The image (right) shows microglia (green) phagocytosing neurons (red) in the hippocampus
Published papers
Guy Brown has published about 200 scientific papers, with an h-index of about 90, on a range of subjects, including: mitochondria, nitric oxide, cell death, microglia, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.
Books of Guy Brown
"Mitochondrial function" is an edited book for students and scientists, published by Portland Press in 2010.
"The Living End" is a popular science book published by Macmillan in 2008. It deals with 'the future of death, aging and immortality'.
"The Energy of Life" is a popular science book published by Harper-Collins in 1999, and winner of the Wellcome Trust Prize.