Marc Claret

Marc Claret Carles
Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona
Project leader

Hypothalamic control of gut function and microbiota composition: implications for energy balance regulation.

• Patrice D Cani
  Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-neuve

• Rubén Nogueiras Pozo
  Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña

The obesity pandemy, and its associated complications, has become a global health challenge. However, safe and effective treatments are currently unavailable. Thus, a better understanding of the underlying causes of obesity is mandatory to develop new therapies. Recently, obesity research has been experimentally approached from a new perspective: the influence of gut microbiota on host’s metabolism. Indeed, evidence indicate that there is a causal relationship between intestinal microbiota health status and the development of obesity and diabetes. Here hypothesize that the brain, and in particular the hypothalamus, influences gut microbiota composition thus contributing to metabolic control. In this proof-of-concept study we show that metabolic hormones and specific populations of hypothalamic neurons mediate direct and fast ( 2-4 hours) changes in gut microbiota composition. These findings challenge and expand the current view by demonstrating that the brain can shape the microbial profile in a meal-to-meal timescale and may contribute to metabolic control.

Marc Claret is the Group Leader of the Neuronal Control of Metabolism (NeuCoMe) Laboratory at the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS). He previously did his postdoc at the University College in London and at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is graduated in Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona (UB), he did his doctoral thesis at IDIBAPS under the supervision of Ramon Gomis, a diabetes specialist. His research, focused on studying how the brain regulates metabolism, is funded by the European Research Council. (Read full CV).

The main research interest of the laboratory is to advance in the understanding of how the brain coordinates systemic energy balance, metabolism and complex behaviors. We employ mouse genetics and state-of-the-art technologies in neuroscience (optogenetics, chemogenetics, fiber photometry) combined with cell-specific molecular profiling, 3D imaging, behavioral analysis and physiology to understand the fundamental principles underlying feeding behavior, energy expenditure, glucose and lipid metabolism in the context of highly prevalent metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.

Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS)
Carrer Rosselló 149-153
08036 Barcelona
Tel.: (+34) 93 227 57 07

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @ClaretLab