Katy Hole

Non-canonical roles of lysosomes in neurons Neurons are highly polarised and compartmentalised cells with organelles that are specialised to support their spatial and functional demands. This includes lysosomes, which are single-membrane-bound ...

Check out the first review from the Mitochondrial Neurobiology lab on... lysosomes!

Learn about the non-canonical roles of lysosomes in neurons from @jonnyspencer.bsky.social @ysudarikova.bsky.social: www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

21.11.2025 16:08 — 👍 9    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

Congratulations to Dr. Patrick Cottilli who has successfully defended his PhD viva yesterday!!🎉 This is a huge milestone for our lab - our first-ever PhD graduate!⭐ So proud of your hard work, creativity, and perseverance throughout these 4 years. Here's to the amazing science ahead!🔬

20.11.2025 14:40 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

This is an airyscan confocal movie of mitochondria (white) moving around in a mouse astrocyte. Actin filaments are in orange and microtubules are in blue.

18.08.2025 01:39 — 👍 338    🔁 68    💬 17    📌 7

Now on bioRxiv! Astrocytes in one brain region (cyan) communicate in expansive networks (magenta). Through tool development, tissue clearing, and many hours on our @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social Z1, we now know these networks are repeatable across mice, plastic, and specific.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

22.07.2025 20:54 — 👍 75    🔁 20    💬 4    📌 3

You're not wrong! There is some great work especially in the cancer field that uses updated tools to convincingly show transfer. However, the majority of astrocyte-neuron studies only use MitoTracker

11.07.2025 16:24 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

MitoTracker transfers from astrocytes to neurons independently of mitochondria The neuroprotective transfer of mitochondria from astrocytes to neurons has been primarily investigated by labelling astrocytic mitochondria with the dye MitoTracker. Here we report that MitoTracker transfers to neurons from both astrocytes and astrocyte-conditioned media, independently of mitochondrial transfer. Our observations should prompt an essential re-evaluation of the literature concerning astrocyte-neuron mitochondrial transfer and in other systems in which contact-independent transfer has been observed using mitochondrial dyes. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. MSD (United Kingdom), https://ror.org/004nn4n27, PRJ_20446 DEVINE MSD MRC The Francis Crick Institute, https://ror.org/04tnbqb63, CC2206

"Our observations should prompt an essential re-evaluation of the literature concerning astrocyte-neuron mitochondrial transfer" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

08.07.2025 22:45 — 👍 27    🔁 16    💬 1    📌 2

Great to see new tools developed to assess mitochondrial transfer!

26.06.2025 14:13 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The cell-surface shared proteome of astrocytes and neurons and the molecular foundations of their multicellular interactions Wu et al. used extracellularly displayed horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to label cell-surface proteins (CSPs) of astrocytes and neurons. By mapping CSPs to their origins, they report shared interactions between astrocytes and neurons, as well as extensive interactions of astrocytes with other parenchymal cells. They provide a foundation for exploring astrocyte-neuron interactions in health and disease.

Online now:

10.06.2025 23:09 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

The glia‐immune network: Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes as microglial co‐ordinators in health and disease Abstract figure legend The glia-immune network involves the communication(s) of glia via immune signalling pathways. In neuro-homeostasis these pathways have been shown to modulate key processes such...

New topical review from Verity Mitchener,
Mille Thackray and Lorena Arancibia-Cárcamo of
@ukdri.ac.uk on the glia-immune network in health and disease, with a focus on how astrocytes and oligodendrocytes coordinate microglia in Alzheimer's disease pathology

10.06.2025 13:27 — 👍 7    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

13 of 16 papers used MitoTracker alone to identify transfer - we hope this work prompts a re-evaluation of the literature concerning astrocyte-neuron mitochondrial transfer

30.05.2025 16:32 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Exploring the limitations of mitochondrial dye as a genuine horizontal mitochondrial transfer surrogate - Communications Biology Evidence underscores the non-specificity of mitochondrial dye in assessing horizontal mitochondrial transfer, suggesting that alternative approaches should be considered for gaining nuanced insights i...

This builds on previous work showing that MitoTracker transfers without mitochondria in a contact-dependent manner. www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-05964-6 Additionally, we find that MitoTracker can also transfer from astrocyte conditioned media (ACM) to neurons without mitochondria.

30.05.2025 16:27 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Preprint alert 🚨In collaboration with MSD (UK) - we have found that the mitochondrial dye MitoTracker transfers from astrocytes to neurons independently of mitochondria.

30.05.2025 16:23 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0