Contact details
Email: ana.domingos@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865 272171
Role: Fellow and Tutor in Medicine at LMH. Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Dept. Physiology, Anatomy, Genetics at University of Oxford and Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar
Biography
I spent my postdoc studies studying with Jeffrey Friedman at Rockefeller University in New York.
Research interests
The Domingos laboratory researches neuroimmune mechanisms underlying obesity. They discovered neuro-adipose junctions, between white adipocytes and sympathetic neurons, that are necessary and sufficient for fat mass reduction via norepinephrine (NE) signalling. Moreover, they discovered Sympathetic neuron-Associated Macrophages (SAMs) that import and metabolize NE. Abrogation of SAM function promotes long-term amelioration of obesity independently of food intake. These findings inspired the development of a new class of anti-obesity compounds named sympathofacilitators, which do not enter the brain, nor have the typical cardiovascular side effects of centrally acting sympathomimetic drugs. Sympathofacilitator drugs act as an energy sink by coupling thermogenesis to active heat dissipation.
Teaching
I teach Medicine at LMH.