Francesco Roselli

Francesco Roselli serves as an apl. Professor and Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Ulm, Germany. His research focuses on the critical yet understudied role of the hypothalamus in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington's Disease (HD), where metabolic disturbances represent early and clinically significant features.

Dr. Roselli's laboratory investigates fundamental questions about why hypothalamic dysfunction occurs in neurodegenerative diseases despite these neurons not being traditional targets of neurodegeneration. His team examines whether disruption of hypothalamic connections contributes to energy imbalance in these conditions and whether hypothalamic interventions can influence the vulnerability of other neuronal populations.

His research program employs multiple sophisticated approaches:

• Development and application of state-of-the-art viral vectors to delineate connections between hypothalamic nuclei and the rest of the brain in ALS mouse models with varying metabolic phenotypes
• Artificial intelligence techniques to identify and map neurons projecting to specific hypothalamic nuclei over time
• Chemogenetic and multiplexed chemogenetic methods to activate or deactivate specific neuronal subpopulations and assess their impact on metabolic phenotypes
• Antibody arrays to characterize neurochemical changes in the hypothalamus before and after disease onset
• Translational analysis of biological samples from ALS patients to validate potential biomarkers
• Clinical evaluation of high-energy dietary supplements as therapeutic interventions

Dr. Roselli's work bridges fundamental neuroscience with clinical applications, aiming to develop novel diagnostic approaches and therapeutic strategies targeting hypothalamic function in neurodegenerative diseases.