Ukpong Eyo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Neuroscience
University of Virginia

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*Lunch provided for in-person attendees

Speaker Bio
Eyo (pronounced “A”-“Yo”) was born in Nigeria and grew up in several different countries. He immigrated to the US in 2003 to pursue undergraduate studies at Northwest Missouri State University. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa where he developed a keen interest in real-time imaging of microglia during development under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Dailey. During his time in the Dailey Lab, Eyo reported remarkable migratory capacities for neonatal microglia and elucidated purinergic mechanisms in microglial demise under simulated ischemic conditions. Following his Ph.D studies, Eyo joined the lab of Dr. Long-Jun Wu, first at Rutgers University in New Jersey, then at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to study microglial-neuronal communications. His postdoctoral research in the Wu Lab uncovered novel physical interaction phenomena between microglia and neurons. These were shown to be governed by glutamate-dependent NMDA receptor signaling that subsequently elicited purine release to activate microglial P2Y12 receptors. Moreover, he showed that this communication axis was beneficial following experimentally-induced seizures. In August 2018, Eyo started his independent lab in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) to continue his research on microglia with a focus on the developing brain. 

Faculty Host: Annabell Singer, Ph.D.
Student Host: 

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