Helmholtz Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany

Research

Cristina García-Cáceres unravelled paradigm-shifting roles of glial cells in the neuroendocrine control of metabolism. She discovered that glial cells, such as astrocytes, are key players in the regulatory control centres of the hypothalamus. They respond to nutritional and hormonal cues from the body and feed directly into neuronal circuits. She found that high levels of the hormone leptin in the blood of obese mice induce pathologic changes in the hypothalamic microvasculature and activate a signalling pathway in astrocytes that drives arterial hypertension. This may explain how obesity-associated high leptin levels can cause hallmark symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Recently, she found how gender-specific pathologies of obesity may arise by revealing that the female hormone estradiol feeds into hypothalamic circuits controlling metabolism.

Academic Career

Cristina García-Cáceres studied biology and neuroendocrinology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, where she completed her doctoral thesis in 2012. She then moved to Helmholtz Munich and Technical University of Munich, Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2015, she became head of the Astrocyte-Neuron Networks Unit at Helmholtz Munich and since 2018, she is associate director of the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity. Since 2021, she holds a joint appointment as associate professor of Neuroendocrinology of Systems Metabolism at Helmholtz Munich and the Faculty of Medicine of LMU Munich. She is the recipient of the Young Investigator Award of the European Society for Clinical Investigation, the Obesity Research Award of the Deutsche Adipositas-Gesellschaft, and of an ERC Starting Grant.