CHRIS BENNETT
LAB
University of Pennsylvania
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Research Questions
Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells. They have specialized functions, intriguing developmental origins, and a remarkable ability to rapidly populate the brain. They are both similar and different from blood-derived macrophages, and those resident in other tissues. To more deeply understand what microglia do, we focus on three central questions:
What is microglial identity?
Microglia are highly specialized tissue macrophages. We are interested in identifying the external signals and intrinsic properties responsible for the unique attributes of microglia.
How to replace microglia?
We are developing methods to deplete microglia and replace them with transplanted surrogates that can be engineered to treat disease. Refining these methods requires improved understanding of how macrophages enter and colonize the brain.
How do microglia contribute to health and disease?
We use macrophage transplantation to understand how microglia are involved in brain disease, and how to leverage them for treatment.
This Year’s news
May
Ryan Anderson passed his candidacy exam!
April
Our paper studying the therapeutic and pathologic role of macrophages in Krabbe disease is published in Immunity
Vidhur won the Eliot Stellar Award for his outstanding honors thesis presented at the undergrad. neuroscience student research symposium
March
Chris is named the recipient of the 1907 Foundation Trail Blazer award
February
Jessie Axsom joined the lab!
January
Sonia defended her thesis and is now officially Dr. Lombroso!
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October 2024
Taylor Phillips-Jones joined the lab!
September 2024
Kelsey Nemec successfully defended her PhD!
Sonia presented her thesis work at the PGG annual retreat, and won an award for her talk
Sonia was selected to give a talk at the Gliadelphia Fall Symposium
Will gave a flash talk and won the postdoctoral poster award at the Gliadelphia Fall Symposium
Daniel Shapiro joined the lab!
August 2024
Lab attends Cold Spring Harbor Glia in Health and Disease meeting - Chris co-chairs the session on modeling human glia
July 2024
Eli Levitt joins the lab as a Research Specialist - Welcome, Eli!
June 2024
Ryan Anderson (PGG Graduate Student) officially joins the Bennett Lab to complete his thesis work! Welcome back, Ryan!
May 2024
Mara Davis (GTV Graduate Student) successfully completes her Qualifying Exam and becomes an official PhD Candidate! Huge congratulations, Mara!
Chris wins the 2024 CHOP Award for Excellence in Mentoring Research Trainees! Various lab members wrote essays on why Chris was so deserving of the award, and CHOP Research agreed! Congrats, Chris! Everyone is so grateful to have you as a mentor!
Will Aisenberg (Postdoctoral Fellow) and Kelsey Nemec (NGG Graduate Student) present posters at the 2024 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Symposium - and BOTH win Poster Prizes!
April 2024
Esteban Luna (Resident Physician) presents a poster at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Denver, CO!
Graduate Students Kelsey Nemec (NGG), Sonia Lombroso (PGG), Sai Chaluvadi (NGG/MSTP), and Mara Davis (GTV) present posters at the MINS Year of Immunology Symposium - and Sonia win’s the Poster Prize! Great work, all!
March 2024
Sai Chaluvadi (NGG/MSTP Student) gives an invited speaker talk at the annual Krabbe Translational Research Network (KTRN) Meeting in Minnesota. Way to go, Sai!
Jenny Smith (BioE) joins the lab as a Rotation Student!
January 2024
Esteban Luna (Resident) and Ryan Anderson (PGG Rotation Student) join the lab! Welcome!
The Bennett Lab celebrates its 5 year “labaversary”! Congrats, Chris and co. - here’s to many more!
PUBLICATIONS
(click DOI for full text link)
Direct microglia replacement reveals pathologic and therapeutic contributions of brain macrophages to a monogenic neurological disease
Immunity 2025 | 10.1016/j.immuni.2025.03.019
Microglia replacement by ER-Hoxb8 conditionally immortalized macrophages provides insight into Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome neuropathology
Elife 2024 | https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.102900.1
Molecular and metaboic heterogeneity of astrocytes and microglia
Cell Metabolism 2023 | DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.03.006
Engineering an inhibitor-resistant human CSF1R variant for microglia replacement
Journal of Experimental Medicine 2023 | DOI: 10.1084/jem.20220857
Microglia in antiviral immunity of the brain and spinal cord
Seminars in Immunology 2022 | DOI: 10.1016/j.smim.2022.101650
Treatment of a genetic brain disease by CNS-wide microglia replacement
Science Translational Medicine 2022 | DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abl9945
The influence of environment and origin on brain resident macrophages and implications for therapy
Nature Neuroscience 2019 | DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0545-6
A Combination of Ontogeny and CNS Environment Establishes Microglial Identity
Neuron 2018 | DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.05.014
Diverse Requirements for Microglial Survival, Specification, and Function Revealed by Defined-Medium Cultures
Neuron 2017 | DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.04.043
Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia
Nature 2017 | DOI: 10.1038/nature21029
New tools for studying microglia in the mouse and human CNS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016 | DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1525528113
Isolation and Culture of Microglia
Current Protocols in Immunology 2018 | DOI: 10.1002/cpim.70
Full publication list for Dr. Bennett: orcid.org/0000-0003-2570-0620
PEOPLE
Frederick “Chris” Bennett, MD
Principal Investigator
Research Question: How can we treat diseases using microglia?
Hobbies: pep talks, parenting, brewing, wandering around
Gary Liu, MD, PhD
Resident Physician
Research Question: How does microglia dysfunction contribute to neuro-developmental disorders?
Hobbies: watching sports, hanging out with my daughter and wife, exercising, playing piano
Esteban Luna, MD, PhD
Resident Physician
Research Question: How does microglial dysfunction contribute to Parkinson’s Disease?
Hobbies: spending time with family and friends, exercising, reading
Carleigh O’Brien, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Question: Are microglia and macrophages functionally different?
Hobbies: volleyball, horror movies, not exercising
Will Aisenberg, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Question: Can replacing diseased microglia with healthy surrogates improve neurological disease outcomes?
Hobbies: hiking, restaurant hopping, cocktail making, baking, parenting
Krystal Oon, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Question: Can engineered macrophages be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases?
Hobbies: yoga, meditation, ice skating, collecting plants
Jessie Axsom, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Research question: How do microglia regulate metabolism, and how does metabolism regulate microglia?
Hobbies: Running, reading, watching WNCAA sports, and spoiling my cats
Fazeela Yaqoob, MS
Research Associate
Research question: Can we treat neurological diseases by replacing bad microglia with good microglia?
Hobbies: movies, reading, driving
Yohaniz Ortega, BS
Graduate Student (CAMB)
Research Question: Can we control macrophage responses during neuroinflammation?
Hobbies: playing piano, finding new restaurants, working out
Sai Chaluvadi, BS
Graduate Student (NGG, MSTP)
Research Question: How can we replace diseased microglia with healthy surrogates?
Hobbies: playing/watching sports (basketball, football, volleyball, frisbee), watching light-hearted TV shows, trying new restaurants, hanging out with friends
Ryan Anderson, BS
Graduate Student (PGG)
Research Question: How can we use hematopoietic stem cells to study and treat neurodegenerative disease?
Hobbies: music (making it, collecting it, teaching it), soccer, basketball, running, hiking, being a cat dad
Daniel Shapiro, BS
Graduate Student (GTV, MSTP)
Research Question: Do microglia retain a memory of infection?
Hobbies: bar hopping, being with friends, trying new restaurants, paint by numbers, playing guitar poorly
Taylor Phillips-Jones, BS
Graduate Student (NGG, MSTP)
Research Question: How do prenatal insults alter microglial function in the developing brain?
Hobbies: baking, painting, trying new restaurants
Eli Levitt, BA
Research Assistant
Hobbies: knitting, quilting, ultimate frisbee, fermentation
Vidhur Polam
Undergraduate Student
Hobbies: running, hiking, traveling, eating an enormous amount of food, playing with my dog, cooking
Gavin Lee
Undergraduate Student
Hobbies: PG-rated movies, walking, napping at horrendous hours, throwing the baseball around
Bilal Elfayoumi
Undergraduate Student
Hobbies: playing percussion, watching movies, hanging with friends, baking/eating too many sweets
LAB ALUM
Emily Church (Research Assistant 2023-2025) - Masters in Public Health @ UW
Sonia Lombroso, PhD (Graduate Student 2020-2025) - Postdoc @ UCSF
Kelsey Nemec, PhD (Graduate Student, 2019-2024) - Postdoc @ Seattle Children’s Hospital
Freddy Purnell (Research Associate, 2021-2023) - PhD Student @ Penn
Matias Porras Paniagua, PhD (Graduate Student, 2019-2023) - Associate @ Insight Partners
Dave Marzan, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2021) - Lecturer @ The College of New Jersey
Ethan Abraham (Undergraduate Researcher, 2020-2021) - Undergraduate Student @ Penn
Graham Peet (Research Specialist, 2019-2021) - PhD Student @ UC-Denver
ROTATION STUDENTS
Kai Shing - NGG, Spring 2025
Hallie Kern - UPenn Biology, Fall 2024
Jenny Smith - BioE, Spring 2024
Taylor Phillips-Jones - NGG/MSTP, Summer 2023
Sydney Mason - NGG, Summer 2023
Ilona Golynker - NGG, Spring 2023
Anna Voss - NGG, Fall 2022
Andrew Nguyen - NGG, Fall 2022
Alana McSween - IGG, Summer 2022
Adriana Hernandez Vasquez - NGG, Fall 2021
Sierra Foshe - NGG, Spring 2021
Hannah Loo - NGG, Spring 2020
David Dai - NGG/MSTP, Fall 2020
Dayne Martinez - NGG/MSTP, Winter 2020
PHOTOS
Contact
We have positions open for postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and research assistants.
Read more about opportunities in our lab here. Please reach out!