Prof Mike Ludwig

Personal profile

• 2004 - 2007: Senior Lecturer, CIP
• 2001 - 2004: Lecturer, Division of Biomedical Sciences
• 1998 - 2001: Principal Investigator (Wellcome Grant), Department of Physiology, University Medical School
• 1995 - 1998: Research Fellow (DFG) Department of Physiology, University Medical School
• 1993 - 1995: Research Fellow (Fogarty/NIH) Department of Physiology/Pharmacology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
• 1989 - 1993: Research Assistant, Department of Biology, University of Leipzig, Germany

Trustee of the Physiological Society

Trustee and treasurer of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology

Reseach Theme

• Signalling, Homeostasis and Energy Balance  

Prof Mike Ludwig's research briefing 1

Prof Mike Ludwig's research briefing 2

The hypothalamus controls the secretion of all pituitary hormones and many homeostatic control systems; it controls appetite, thirst, body composition, metabolism, all aspects of reproduction, and physiological responses to stress. These neurones are mediators of many specific behaviours, including feeding, sexual and aggressive behaviours, social interaction, maternal care and bonding.

The brain uses more than 100 different peptides as chemical signals to communicate information, and these have a role in information processing that is quite unlike that of conventional neurotransmitters. Neuropeptides are released from all parts of a neuron, including the axon, soma and, especially, the dendrites, and so are not restricted spatially by synaptic wiring.

We are interested in understanding the basic mechanisms by which peptides affect the functional properties of neuronal networks, and exactly how they can have apparently specific behavioural effects. Of these, the vasopressin and oxytocin neurons have proved to be good model systems for revealing important aspects of many neuronal functions, including neuropeptide release, leading to the understanding of the importance of peptide release from neuronal dendrites.

The mechanisms for dendritic neuropeptide release can be very different from axon terminal release, and for vasopressin and oxytocin, differentially regulated release allows peptide effects in the body to be independent from peptide effects in the brain.

We are currently studying novel populations of vasopressin cells in the olfactory bulb and the retina. In the olfactory system, vasopressin is involved in social recognition and vasopressin signaling in this system underlies the ability of these neurons to filter out social odour cues. We recently found that the retina also contains many vasopressin-expressing cells, and that, strikingly, these communicate mainly with the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the body’s biological clock, regulating circadian rhythms.

Our studies address contemporary questions in neuroscience using whole animal physiological approaches including in vivo electrophysiology, microdialysis and behavioural analysis. The functions of the hypothalamus have been tightly conserved through mammalian evolution, making findings from rodents translatable to humans. The diversity of neuropeptides and the even greater diversity of receptors expressed at specific locations in the brain open many possibilities for precise molecular targeting of therapeutic interventions.

Funding

• Diabetes UK Grant (Menzies/Ludwig) 2023-2025, Title: Does insulin resistance in oxytocin signaling systems drive detrimental food choices?

Team members

• Chris Coyle (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Collaborations

• Yoiche Ueta (Kitakyushu, Japan)
• Tatsushi Onaka (Jichi, Japan)
• Javier E. Stern (Augusta, USA)
• Michael Callahan (Columbia MO, USA)
• Colin Brown (University of Otago, New Zealand)
• Rainer Landgraf (Regensburg, Germany)
• Mario Engelmann (Magdeburg, Germany)
• Valery Grinevich (Heidelberg, Germany)
• Robert Millar (Pretoria, South Africa)

Selected Publications

Hassan S, El Baradey H, Madi M, Shebl M, Leng G, Lozic M, Ludwig M, Menzies J, MacGregor D. Measuring oxytocin release in response to gavage: computational modeling and assay validation. J Neuroendocrinol 2023; e13303.

Ludwig M, Newton C, Pieters A, Homer NZM, Li XF, O’Byrne KT, Millar RP. Provocative tests with Kisspeptin-10 and GnRH set the scene for determining social status and environmental impacts on reproductive capacity in male African lions (Panthera leo). Gen Comp Endocrinol 2022; 329, 114127.

Leng G, Leng RI, Ludwig M. Oxytocin a social peptide? Deconstructing the evidence. Phil Trans R Soc B 2022; 377 (1858): 20210055.

Grinevich V, Ludwig M. The multiple faces of the oxytocin and vasopressin systems in the brain. J Neuroendocrinol. 2021; 33(11): e13004.

Paiva L, Lozic M, Allchorne A, Grinevich V, Ludwig M. Identification of peripheral oxytocin-expressing cells using systemically applied cell-type specific adeno-associated viral vector. J Neuroendocrinol. 2021; 33(5): e12970.

Brown CH, Ludwig M, Tasker JG, Stern JE. Somato-dendritic vasopressin and oxytocin secretion in endocrine and autonomic regulation. J Neuroendocrinol 2020; 32(6): e12856.

Tsuji T, Tsuji C, Lozic M, Ludwig M, Leng G. Coding of odours in the anterior olfactory nucleus. Physiol Rep 2019; 7(22): e14284.

Hume C, Allchorne A, Grinevich V, Leng G, Ludwig M. Effects of optogenetic stimulation of vasopressinergic retinal afferents on supraoptic neurons. J Neuroendocrinol 2019; 31(12): e12806.

Robinson K, Bosch O, Levkowitz G, Busch E, Jarman A, Ludwig M. Social creatures; model animal systems for studying the neuroendocrine mechanisms of social behaviour. J Neuroendocrinol 2019; 31(12): e12807.

Wacker D, Ludwig M. The role of vasopressin in olfactory and visual processing. Cell Tissue Res. 2019; 375(1): 201-215.

Ludwig M. How your brain cells talk to each other - whispered secrets and public announcements. Front Young Minds 2017; 5(39),

Tsuji T, Allchorne AJ, Zhang M, Tsuji C, Tobin VA, Pineda R, Raftogianni A, Stern JE, Grinevich V, Leng G, Ludwig M. Vasopressin casts light on the suprachiasmatic nucleus. J Physiol 2017; 595(11): 3497-3514.

Paiva L, Sabatier N, Leng G, Ludwig M. Effect of Melanotan-II on brain Fos immunoreactivity and oxytocin neuronal activity and secretion in rats. J Neuroendocrinol 2017; 29(2), 10.1111/jne.12454. 

Pineda R, Plaisier F. Millar RP, Ludwig M. Amygdala kisspeptin neurons: putative mediators of olfactory control of the gonadotropic axis. Neuroendocrinology 2017; 104(3): 223-238.

Ludwig M, Apps D, Menzies J, Patel J, Rice M. Dendritic transmitter release. Comp Physiol 2017, 7: 235-252.

Tsuji T, Tsuji C, Ludwig M, Leng G. The rat suprachiasmatic nucleus: the master clock ticks at 30Hz. J Physiol 2016; 594(13): 3620-3650.

Leng G, Ludwig M. Intranasal oxytocin: myths and delusions. Biol Psychiatry 2016, 79(3): 243-250.

Videos

Research in a Nutshell: Peptides and behaviour

YouTube: Can you cure jetlag with a single eye drop?

Information for students:

Willingness to discuss research projects with undergraduate and postgraduate students: YES - please click here