Dr. Brambilla’s main interest is understanding the role of neuroinflammation in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke, with a specific focus on the contribution of glial cells. In recent years she has devoted her efforts to investigating the function of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), both membrane-bound and soluble forms, in neuroimmune disease. Within this context, she is exploring the protective signaling initiated by the interaction of membrane-bound TNF with TNFR2, taking advantage of cell-specific conditional knockout mice with ablation of TNFR2 from various CNS and immune cell populations, including astrocytes, microglia/macrophages, oligodendrocyte precursor cells and myelinating oligodendrocytes.
Another important research topic being developed in her lab is understanding how intrinsic oligodendrocyte dysfunction might play a role in multiple sclerosis etiopathogenesis. She is investigating this hypothesis using novel transgenic mice developed in her lab, as well as human iPSC-derived oligodendrocytes and post-mortem multiple sclerosis brain and spinal cord tissues.
More recently, she has become interested in understanding how cholesterol dysfunction may participate in the pathogenesis and progression of neurological disease, specifically multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury. She is studying how restoring proper cholesterol metabolism in the central nervous system may contribute to neurorepair.
