Bart Eggen PhD

Bart Eggen received his MSc (1989) and PhD (1995) from the University of Utrecht. As a graduate student, he worked on the regulation of B-50/GAP-43 gene expression in the Department of Physiological Chemistry and the Rudolf Magnus Institute, Utrecht, with Prof. Loes Schrama and Prof. Willem Hendrik Gispen.

He obtained a Human Frontiers Science Program fellowship to work with Prof. Gail Mandel at the State University of New York and later with Prof. Ali Hemmati Brivanlou at the Rockefeller University in New York on the characterization of the transcriptional repressor protein REST/NRSF that controls neuron-specific gene expression. In 2000, he joined the Department of Developmental Genetics at the University of Groningen to work on the epigenetic regulation of embryonic stem cell pluripotency.

In 2010, he moved to the Department of Neuroscience at the UMCG. There his main research focus is on the (epi)genetic regulation of microglia identity and function in the context of the normal brain, during aging and under neuroinflammatory or neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

• All Publications: mepa page

  Selected Publications: Profiling Microglia From Alzheimer's Disease Donors and Non-demented Elderly in Acute Human Postmortem Cortical Tissue. Alsema AM, Jiang Q, Kracht L, Gerrits E, Dubbelaar ML, Miedema A, Brouwer N, Hol EM, Middeldorp J, van Dijk R, Woodbury M, Wachter A, Xi S, Möller T, Biber KP, Kooistra SM, Boddeke EWGM, Eggen BJL.Front Mol Neurosci. 2020 Oct 28;13:134, PMID: 33192286 Intrinsic DNA damage repair deficiency results in progressive microglia loss and replacement. Zhang X, Heng Y, Kooistra SM, van Weering HRJ, Brummer ML, Gerrits E, Wesseling EM, Brouwer N, Nijboer TW, Dubbelaar ML, Boddeke EWGM, Eggen BJL.Glia. 2020 Oct 17. PMID: 33068332 Human fetal microglia acquire homeostatic immune-sensing properties early in development. Kracht L, Borggrewe M, Eskandar S, Brouwer N, Chuva de Sousa Lopes SM, Laman JD, Scherjon SA, Prins JR, Kooistra SM, Eggen BJL.Science. 2020 Jul 31;369(6503):530-537. PMID: 32732419 Transcriptional profiling of microglia; current state of the art and future perspectives. Gerrits E, Heng Y, Boddeke EWGM, Eggen BJL.Glia. 2020 Apr;68(4):740-755. PMID: 31846124 Low-Fat Diet With Caloric Restriction Reduces White Matter Microglia Activation During Aging. Yin Z, Raj DD, Schaafsma W, van der Heijden RA, Kooistra SM, Reijne AC, Zhang X, Moser J, Brouwer N, Heeringa P, Yi CX, van Dijk G, Laman JD, Boddeke EWGM, Eggen BJL.Front Mol Neurosci. 2018 Mar 12;11:65. PMID: 29593493 Maternal inflammation induces immune activation of fetal microglia and leads to disrupted microglia immune responses, behavior, and learning performance in adulthood. Schaafsma W, Basterra LB, Jacobs S, Brouwer N, Meerlo P, Schaafsma A, Boddeke EWGM, Eggen BJL.Neurobiol Dis. 2017 Oct;106:291-300. Transcriptomic analysis of purified human cortical microglia reveals age-associated changes. Galatro TF, Holtman IR, Lerario AM, Vainchtein ID, Brouwer N, Sola PR, Veras MM, Pereira TF, Leite REP, Möller T, Wes PD, Sogayar MC, Laman JD, den Dunnen W, Pasqualucci CA, Oba-Shinjo SM, Boddeke EWGM, Marie SKN, Eggen BJL.Nat Neurosci. 2017 Aug;20(8):1162-1171. PMID: 28671693 Induction of a common microglia gene expression signature by aging and neurodegenerative conditions: a co-expression meta-analysis. Holtman IR, Raj DD, Miller JA, Schaafsma W, Yin Z, Brouwer N, Wes PD, Möller T, Orre M, Kamphuis W, Hol EM, Boddeke EW, Eggen BJ.Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2015 May 23;3:31. PMID: 26001565 Long-lasting pro-inflammatory suppression of microglia by LPS-preconditioning is mediated by RelB-dependent epigenetic silencing. Schaafsma W, Zhang X, van Zomeren KC, Jacobs S, Georgieva PB, Wolf SA, Kettenmann H, Janova H, Saiepour N, Hanisch UK, Meerlo P, van den Elsen PJ, Brouwer N, Boddeke HW, Eggen BJ.Brain Behav Immun. 2015 Aug;48:205-21. PMID: 25843371 In acute experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, infiltrating macrophages are immune activated, whereas microglia remain immune suppressed. Vainchtein ID, Vinet J, Brouwer N, Brendecke S, Biagini G, Biber K, Boddeke HW, Eggen BJ.Glia. 2014 Oct;62(10):1724-35. PMID: 24953459