Frederick Christian Bennett, M.D.

faculty photo
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Department: Psychiatry

Contact information
3501 Civic Center
Rm 6026
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 2157467275
Education:
B.S. (Biology, Magna cum Laude)
Haverford College, 2003.
M.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine, 2011.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests: Role of microglia in brain health and disease

Keywords: microglia, glia, macrophages, inflammation, neuroinflammation

Research Summary: Our laboratory studies microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. These mysterious cells play important roles in brain health and disease, but are poorly understood. We focus primarily on two related questions: 1) What are the environmental signals and intrinsic properties that govern microglial function? 2) How do these signals and properties contribute to brain health and disease? To answer these questions, we have developed tools to transplant microglia and other macrophages (including from humans) into the rodent brain, allowing dissection of environmental versus cell intrinsic factors controlling microglial function in health and disease. In parallel, we are adopting brain macrophage transplantation for therapeutic use.

Personal lab webpage: www.fcblab.org

Rotation Projects: We attempt to design rotation projects customized to the lab's current trajectory and student interest. Please feel welcome to contact Dr. Bennett by email to discuss current project opportunities.

Lab Personnel:

Frederick "Chris" Bennett M.D., Principal Investigator
Dave Marzan, PhD. Postdoctoral Fellow
Fazeela Yaqood, M.S. Research Assistant.

Selected Publications

Shibuya Y, Kumar KK, Mader MM, Yoo Y, Ayala LA, Zhou M, Mohr MA, Neumayer G, Kumar I, Yamamoto R, Marcoux P, Liou B, Bennett FC, Nakauchi H, Sun Y, Chen X, Heppner FL, Wyss-Coray T, Südhof TC, Wernig M.: Treatment of a genetic brain disease by CNS-wide microglia replacement. Science Translational Medicine 14(636): eabl9945, March 2022.

Lombroso SI, O'Brien CA, Bennett FC: Mapping the acquisition of brain macrophage identity. Poster, "Glia in Health and Disease" meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY 2022.

O'Brien C, Bennett FC: An accumulation of life events: impact of ontogeny on microglial and macrophage responses to brain injury. Poster, "Glia in health and disease" meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY 2022.

Aisenberg W, Nemec K, Obrien C, Lombroso S, Yaqoob F, Chaluvadi S, Bennett FC: Transcriptomic analysis of brain macrophages in the murine model of globoid cell leukodystrophy. Poster, "Glia in Health and Disease," Cold Spring Harbor, NY 2022.

Chaluvadi S, Bennett FC: In vitro macrophage models for globoid cell leukodystrophy offer a powerful tool for studying globoid cell formation and function. Poster, "Glia in health and disease," meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY 2022.

Nemec KM, Purnell FS, Hernandez Vasquez A, Aisenberg WH, Robbins AB, Bennett FC: Using Hoxb8 conditionally-immortalized macrophages to study microglia replacement. Poster, "Glia in Health and Disease" meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY 2022.

OBrien C, Yaqoob MS, Bennett FC: Brain macrophage transplantation for research and therapy development. Poster presentation, Keystone Symposia "Neuroimmune Interactions in the Central Nervous System," Virtual meeting June 2021.

Bennett FC, Sloan SA: Glia in neurodegeneration. Neurobiol Dis 2021.

Gibson EM, Bennett FC, Gillespie SM, Guler AD et al: How Support of Early Career Researchers Can Reset Science in the Post-COVID19 World. Cell 181(7): 1445-49, June 2020.

Ryan SK, Gonzalez MV, Garifallou JP, Bennett FC, Williams KS, Sotuyo NP, Mironets E, Cook K, Hakonarson H, Anderson SA, Jordan-Sciutto KL: Neuroinflammation and EIF2 Signaling Persist despite Antiretroviral Treatment in an hiPSC Tri-culture Model of HIV Infection. Stem Cell Reports 14(5): 991, May 2020.

back to top
Last updated: 10/25/2022
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania