Glia–Neuron Networks Orchestrating Brain and Systemic Function

Schuichi Koizumi
University of Yamanashi

 

　The brain does not operate through neurons alone. Glial cells, once regarded simply as “supporting cells” for neurons, are now recognized as active participants in brain function. Through continuous communication with neurons, glia regulate synaptic transmission, neural circuit formation, information processing, learning, memory, and many other aspects of nervous system function. Understanding the dynamic, bidirectional interactions between neuronal circuits and diverse glial cells—the “glia–neuron network”—is therefore emerging as a new framework for understanding how the brain works.

　Today, this concept is expanding beyond the brain to encompass the entire body. Signals arising from the immune system, metabolic tissues, and other peripheral organs reach the brain not only through neural pathways, but also through humoral factors and immune signals, where they are sensed and integrated by glia and neurons. Conversely, the brain regulates systemic homeostasis through autonomic and endocrine pathways. How do glial cells detect information from the body and cooperate with neurons to regulate physiological functions? Addressing this question is opening a new window onto biological processes and diseases that extend far beyond conventional neuroscience, including immunity, metabolism, circulation, aging, and cancer.

　This rapid progress has been enabled by transformative technologies, including in vivo imaging, cell type-specific manipulation using optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches, and single-cell and spatial omics. These technologies now allow us to visualize dynamic cell–cell communication in living organisms and to interrogate its causal roles. At the same time, fields that have traditionally developed along separate paths—including neuroscience, immunology, metabolism and endocrinology, cardiovascular science, and oncology—are beginning to converge around a common question: how do the brain and the body communicate to maintain health and shape disease?

　The 57th Naito Conference, under the theme “Glia–Neuron Networks Orchestrating Brain and Systemic Function,” will bring together leading investigators in glial biology and neural circuits with researchers from a broad range of disciplines, including immunology, metabolism and endocrinology, cardiovascular science, and oncology. How do glia and neurons exchange information and shape neural circuits? How is information from the body conveyed to the brain, and how is it interpreted there? And how does the brain, through glia–neuron networks, regulate systemic homeostasis and disease processes? By bringing different disciplines into close dialogue, we aim to explore these fundamental questions from new perspectives.

　The Naito Conference has previously hosted two landmark meetings in this field: “The Brain from the Perspective of the Glial World” in 2010 and “Glial Cells Leading Brain Function” in 2023. Building on this legacy, the 57th Naito Conference seeks to take the field a step further by viewing neurons and glia, and the brain and the body, as components of a single dynamic network. We hope that the conference will point toward new directions in the life sciences that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, and that close interactions between established leaders and the next generation of scientists will spark new concepts, new collaborations, and ultimately new fields of research.