Anthony Group | Experimental Neuropathology

Experimental Neuropathology Laboratory was established in 2000 with the explicit aim of understanding Neuroinflammation as a central driver of pathology in diseases of the brain and spinal cord. From its inception, the laboratory has focused on how inflammatory processes within the central nervous system shape disease initiation, progression, and outcome, with particular emphasis on the biology of astrocytes and microglia. Long before neuroinflammation became a convenient umbrella term, our work demonstrated that phenotypic changes in glial morphology and function are not epiphenomena but often the defining histopathological signature of neurological disease, spanning conditions from multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury to motor neuron disease, neurodegeneration, and neuropsychiatric illness.

A central theme of the laboratory’s work is that neuroinflammation is dynamic, context dependent, and governed by molecular programmes that are shaped by both intrinsic CNS mechanisms and extrinsic systemic influences. We have shown that activated astrocytes and microglia exhibit highly plastic transcriptional and metabolic profiles, which are modified by age, prior injury, peripheral immune status, and systemic metabolic state. This work has contributed to a broader reappraisal of glial cells as active regulators of neural function, behaviour, and vulnerability to disease, rather than passive responders to neuronal damage.

In recent years, the laboratory has pioneered work on brain to periphery communication during neuroinflammatory states. We have demonstrated that focal inflammatory lesions within the brain provoke a coordinated systemic immune response, mediated in part by the release of extracellular vesicles from the injured CNS into the circulation. These circulating vesicles carry inflammatory and metabolic signals that influence peripheral immunity, behaviour, and disease trajectory, providing a mechanistic framework for understanding how central inflammation drives whole body responses. This work sits at the interface of neuroimmunology, systems biology, and translational neuroscience, with direct relevance to chronic neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders.

Professor Anthony is a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and holds an honorary Professorial position at the University of Southern Denmark. He has authored over 250 peer reviewed publications in the neurobiology of inflammation, reflecting more than two decades of continuous work in this field, supported by long standing national and international collaborations. A complete and current publication record is available via ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1380-6655). The laboratory is fully equipped for in vivo disease modelling, molecular and cellular neuroscience, immunohistochemistry, and advanced phenotyping approaches relevant to neuroinflammatory research.