Natalia Duque-Wilckens
Bio
Dr. Duque-Wilckens received her doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Chile. Here, she developed a deep interest in understanding the bidirectional link between emotional well-being and peripheral disease, which motivated her to continue her education at University of California, Davis. At UC Davis, Dr. Duque-Wilckens´ research focused on understanding how oxytocin can increase anxiety in certain contexts. Her graduate work, published in “Neuropharmacology”, “Biological Psychiatry”, and “PNAS”, collectively showed for the first time that a distinct, stress-sensitive oxytocin circuit within a small brain nucleus called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis drives anxiety related behaviors in unknown social contexts. These results provided key insights into the mechanisms explaining why “the love hormone” can sometimes -counterintuitively- increase social anxiety.
Dr. Duque-Wilckens continued her postdoctoral training at Michigan State University, where she led a project studying the role of mast cells in mood regulation. Mast cells are highly conserved immune cells ideally positioned to coordinate immune, nervous, and endocrine responses to environmental stimuli, thanks to their strategic distribution across tissues and their capacity to respond to and release multiple molecules ranging from cytokines and chemokines to growth factors and neurotransmitters. Her initial project, published in “Brain, Behavior, and Immunity”, demonstrated that exposure to early life adversity increases the likelihood of developing depressive-like behavior and amplifies the meningeal inflammatory response to adult stress. Her research further showed that both these effects can be prevented through pharmacological inhibition of mast cells, suggesting that mast cells play an important role in connecting early life adversity with adult psychopathology and inflammatory responses. In her second project, Dr. Duque-Wilckens used a combination of genetic models together with in vitro and in vivo studies to show that FosB, a transcription factor known to play pivotal roles in neuronal function, is a negative modulator of mast cell degranulation, which could provide key insights into the development of therapeutic approaches for disorders associated with excessive mast cell activity such as allergies and mast cell activation syndrome.
At North Carolina State University, the Duque-Wilckens’ lab incorporates her knowledge in veterinary medicine, neuroscience, and immunology, to study the neuroimmune mechanisms that govern resilience and susceptibility to physical and behavioral pathology. Currently, the lab is focused on two main projects. One aims at elucidating the physiological role of mast cells on brain development and function, and the other is exploring the role of mast cells in connecting early-life exposure to environmental contaminants with heightened susceptibility to infections, metabolic diseases, and anxiety across various species. This interdisciplinary research underscores the One Health approach by examining the intricate interplay between environmental factors, immune responses, and overall health outcomes in both animal and human populations.