Integrated Brain-Body Neuroscience

September 5-12, 2026

Director: Scott J. Russo

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Faculty:

Jessica Ables, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA (Co-Organizer)

Cameron McAlpine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Kara Marshall, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

Ivan De Araujo, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany

Jens Brüning, Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany

Jonathan Kipnis, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA

Scott J. Russo, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Brain-body research is a rapidly growing field that explores the complex, bidirectional communication between the nervous system and peripheral organs—via immune, endocrine and metabolic pathways—to control physiological states. Far from acting in isolation, the brain continuously monitors and responds to signals from across the body, shaping behaviour, cognition, emotion, and homeostasis. At the same time, peripheral organ systems can have a profound influence on brain function and health. Understanding these integrative pathways is essential for developing novel treatments for a range of conditions, from neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders to chronic pain, metabolic syndromes, and inflammatory diseases.

This Advanced Course brings together leading researchers investigating these dynamic brain-body interactions. This multidisciplinary event will feature talks covering a wide array of topics at the forefront of the field. Sessions will explore how lymphatic drainage impacts central nervous system diseases and how internal physiological states modulate sensory systems. Speakers will address the connections between metabolic systems and psychiatric conditions, as well as how bidirectional neuroimmune circuits mediate responses to stress. The talks and discussions will also delve into how these brain-body interactions affect sleep and cardiovascular health.

Together, the Advanced Course will showcase the latest advances in brain-body sciences, with a focus on how the immune, metabolic, and nervous systems interact across the spectrum of health and disease. By fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue among faculty and attendees, the lectures are designed to inspire new collaborations and spark innovative approaches to understanding and treating complex brain-body disorders.

Jonathan Kipnis

Anatomy of brain-immune interactions

For many years, it was believed that the immune and nervous systems operated as separate entities, with the central nervous system having immune privilege. However, recent studies have revealed that the borders of the central nervous system possess unique mechanisms that allow interaction between the two systems, bringing neuroimmune interactions into focus. Although the immune and nervous systems share the common goal of maintaining homeostasis, there are cases where these interactions can contribute to neurological or psychiatric disorders.
During the lectures, we will delve into the latest findings that highlight the key anatomical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms enabling neuro-immune responses at the borders of the brain and spinal cord. The implications of these interactions for central nervous system diseases will be a primary focus, including how these new insights may assist in developing effective treatments for such conditions.

Cameron Mc Alpine

Exercise and sleep mediate heart-brain communication

The brain and heart are vital co-dependent organs and hubs of the nervous and circulatory systems. Communication between these organs is critical to health and occurs through peripheral innervation, mechanical forces, and vascular supply of immune cells and molecules. Our lifestyles and behaviors are key modulators of the heart-brain axis. During the presentation, we will discuss how exercise and sleep influence afferent and efferent heart-brain communication and highlight the important role of the immune system in these interactions. These concepts will be applied to cardiovascular and neurological diseases, elucidating new immunoceptive and autonomic circuits with unanticipated therapeutic opportunities.

Jessica Ables

Diabetes and reward circuitry

Diabetes increases the risk of neuropsychiatric illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Neuroimaging studies of individuals with diabetes have revealed structural and functional changes in reward circuitry compared to healthy controls, indicating direct effects of diabetes on the brain. However, the long-term impact of diabetes on gene expression and neuronal function within the reward circuitry remains unknown, as do the connections between altered gene expression, circuit activity, and dysregulated feeding behaviour. We are examining the longitudinal effects of diabetes on the translatome, metabolome, and circuit activity within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) across the early, middle, and late stages of the disease.
Our aim is to connect molecular and circuitry adaptations to food choices in mouse models of diabetes, including insulin deficiency (streptozotocin, STZ) and insulin resistance (diet-induced obesity, DIO). Our preliminary data in STZ mice indicate a period of metabolic reprogramming during the acute to subacute phase, peaking around 6 weeks after diabetes onset, followed by adaptations in the expression of genes linked to synaptic structure, function, and plasticity within the NAc at 12 weeks. Behaviourally, we employ longitudinal home cage feeding, time-limited home cage feeding, and operant tasks combined with fibre photometry to assess how diabetes influences the consumption of foods that differ in hedonic (flavour) and metabolic (macronutrient) value, and how these behaviours relate to neural activity. The primary objectives of the proposed studies are to track the progression of molecular and cellular effects of diabetes on the NAc over time and to examine the activity of specific Nac cell populations in relation to food choice behaviour under different metabolic states. These studies will offer essential insights into how diabetes impacts NAc function and the role of NAc subpopulations in regulating state-dependent feeding behaviour.

Scott J. Russo

Brain-body neuroimmune circuits in stress and depression

A dynamic, bidirectional dialogue between the nervous and immune systems shapes behavior, with recent discoveries mapping discrete communication axes between the brain and peripheral organs. To unify these findings, I will discuss a systems-level framework that represents a paradigm shift beyond classical psychoneuroimmunology. This framework reconceptualizes behavior as an emergent property of a distributed, whole-body immune-brain network rather than the product of isolated organ-brain interactions. It builds on core molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuroimmune communication, ranging from cytokine-mediated modulation of neural activity and synaptic plasticity to neuroglial-immune cell interactions and neuroendocrine pathways—all of which constitute a shared language enabling cross-organ signalling. I examine how diverse peripheral organs function as network nodes that translate local immune or physiological changes into systemic signals modulating brain circuits and behavior. Integrating these axes reveals emergent network properties, including redundant pathways that confer resilience, as well as vulnerable hub organs (such as the gut and bone marrow) that exert disproportionate influence on network stability. These properties provide a powerful model for understanding complex behavioral phenotypes and the crosstalk between multi-system diseases, reframing neuropsychiatric diseases as systemic network dysregulations rather than purely brain-centric conditions. Finally, I will discuss how this perspective might inform precision medicine by leveraging immune biomarkers to identify patient subtypes (for example, distinguishing an “inflammatory” depression biotype) and by guiding novel therapeutic strategies such as bioelectronic neuromodulation (i.e., vagus nerve stimulation), microbiome-targeted interventions, and cytokine-targeted biologics—all aimed at recalibrating cross-organ neuroimmune networks and restoring system-wide homeostasis.

Kara Marshall

Mechanosensors, pain and emotions: PIEZO ion channels in interoception

Within our bodies, various organs expand and contract as they perform their functions; nearby neurons detect and transmit the resulting mechanical sensations to the brain, guiding appropriate behaviours. For instance, stretch sensors in the stomach trigger digestion and signal when we feel full, while bladder stretch alerts us to find a bathroom. Despite their significance, the mechanosensory systems that control these processes are not yet understood.
We previously discovered that a stretch receptor called PIEZO2 detects bladder distension and mediates urination. Now, using a combination of techniques, including genetics, histology, and neuronal mapping, we will determine how mechanosensory proteins, such as PIEZO ion channels, contribute to the physiology of the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts. We will extend this work to clarify how the brain integrates mechanical cues from the body to mediate internal pain and emotion.

Ivan De Araujo

Gut-brain interactions

Despite conventional skepticism, it is now recognised that signals generated deep within gastrointestinal tissues, mostly independent of the conscious mind, have significant effects on psychological and behavioural states. Attendees will be introduced to the emerging science of body-brain interactions and evidence demonstrating that visceral organs influence higher-order psychological states. This includes an exploration of how the vagus nerve, a long nerve connecting the viscera to the central nervous system, transmits information from the gut to brain regions responsible for pleasure and other emotions. Anatomical and functional comparisons between the vagal and spinal gut-brain axes will be discussed in detail, incorporating both animal and human studies. In this context, the presentation will also cover how stomach-to-brain signals explain many effects of modern weight-loss drugs. Attendees will be provided with a broad conceptual framework underpinning contemporary ideas of the gut-brain axis.

Jens Brüning

The neuroendocrine control of metabolism

The brain integrates hormonal, nutritional, and sensory signals to regulate feeding, energy expenditure, and glucose metabolism. Recent progress, including the discovery of PNOC neurons as additional contributors to leptin- and diet-responsive pathways, emphasises that the diversity and specialisation of hypothalamic neuron populations are far greater than previously recognised. These emerging circuits, along with the coordinated actions of classical AgRP and POMC neurons, demonstrate how the hypothalamus orchestrates metabolic homeostasis through distributed and interconnected networks. Simultaneously, rapid brain-liver communication shows how sensory food perception can anticipate metabolic needs by adjusting hepatic mitochondrial and glucose responses. Collectively, these findings reshape our understanding of the neuroendocrine control of metabolism.