Brain functions are incredibly important and fascinating. They allow us to solve tricky problems, share thoughts with others, and influence our destiny. Many people take these precious faculties for granted until injuries or diseases take them away. We aim to avoid this outcome by unraveling and blocking the mechanisms that underlie major brain disorders.

The particular brain disorders we study are frequent, devastating and costly, not only to the patients themselves, but also to their families and society in general. For most, if not all, of these conditions, there are no effective ways to prevent, halt or reverse the underlying disease mechanisms, creating a huge and pressing need to identify novel therapeutic strategies, a quest we are pursuing with a great sense of urgency.

Shedding light on the complex processes that cause brain disorders is among the most important, challenging and fascinating quests anybody could embark on. Unraveling these processes can teach us a great deal about the intricate structures and functions they impair. And the more we understand about disease mechanisms, the greater our chances of finding better strategies to block them.

Advancing (or “translating”) scientific discoveries and mechanistic insights into better therapeutics for major brain disorders is an important goal of the Mucke Lab. This capricious process often makes it necessary to question dogmas and think out of the box.

Methods and Technologies

The Mucke Lab uses a broad range of methods and regularly leverages promising new technologies, often as soon as they emerge. Therefore, the following list is continually changing and expanding.

  • Neurotropic viral vectors

  • Pharmacological interventions

  • Primary cell culture

  • Proteomics

  • Single-cell analyses

  • Transcriptomics

  • Behavioral testing

  • Biochemical assays

  • Electrophysiology

  • Gene editing and knockdown

  • Histopathology

  • Machine learning

  • Microscopy

Interests and Ongoing Studies

  • Mechanisms and treatment of dementia, epilepsy, and autism spectrum disorders

  • Pathobiology of amyloid proteins, tau, apolipoprotein E, α-synuclein, TREM2, PTEN, and related signaling pathways

  • Neural processes underlying important brain functions

  • Role of glia in health and disease

  • Dissection of complex neuropathogenic pathways in experimental models

  • Development and (pre)clinical assessment of novel therapeutic strategies

  • Establishment and guidance of interdisciplinary research programs