Wu Tsai Neuro Seminar w/ Staci Bilbo – SRP Livestream Locations

Good morning SOM Stanford Research Park Community,

We invite you to join us for today’s Neurosciences Seminar. The seminar will be held in-person on the main Stanford campus with 3 satellite viewing locations in Stanford Research Park.

🗓️ Feb 19, 2026

Lung-brain signaling in mental health outcomes
Staci Bilbo, PhD

Duke University | Host: Karen Malacon (Monje Lab)

This seminar is co-presented by Psychiatry Grand Rounds | Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Knowledge linking connections between the lung and the brain has been with us for millennia, spanning ancient (ayurvedic) breathing practices aimed at breath awareness/control, to the prevailing recognition in recent years that respiratory insults (e.g., infection, allergens) can have lasting impacts on mood, cognition, pain, and other aspects of brain function. Despite these links, we know little about the mechanisms by which these two critical organs communicate. The lung has a small population of specialized sensory epithelial cells called pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs) that sit in clusters at the branch points of the major airways. PNECs are the first lung epithelial cell to differentiate during early development and have key morphogenic roles during the transition to an air environment after birth. Whereas PNECs share redundant immune secretary functions with several other lung cells, they are the only innervated cells of the lung epithelium and were initially discovered based on hallmark secretary vesicles, pointing to their neural signaling function. I hypothesize a primary function of PNECs is to communicate with the brain and are critical for the behavioral consequences of lung (dys)function broadly. To begin to investigate these questions, we developed a model to efficiently ablate PNECs in mice and determined the brain and lung response to a common respiratory insult, influenza infection. Our preliminary data suggests that lung activity detected via the PNECs is rapidly transduced to the CNS via vagal afferents, which impacts brain function via the encoding of immune “engrams” (memories) within select brain regions, which if reactivated, can persistently impact behavior (e.g. anxiety). A primary goal of this research going forward is to comprehensively phenotype behavior (mood, cognition, pain) in the days and weeks after infection recovery and subsequent neural reactivation to determine the persistence of immune engrams within the brain. Then, we will determine if we can modulate PNECs to impact immune engram formation/maintenance and alleviate behavioral consequences such as anxiety. A parallel goal is to examine these questions using a developmental lens.

⏰ Time: 12:00-1:00 PM (PT)
Come 15 minutes early (11:45 AM) to enjoy coffee, cookies, and conversation with the speaker and your colleagues (main campus location only)

📍 Locations:

• Main Campus (in person): Gunn Rotunda (E241), Stanford Neurosciences Building
• Stanford Research Park satellite locations:
  • 3172 Porter Drive, Room 253
  • 3174 Porter Drive, Room 140
  • 1070 Arastradero Road, Room 211

Learn about the SRP satellites »

Learn more and get involved:

• Nominate speakers for the 2026-2027 seminar series
• About the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Seminar Series »
• Sign up to dine or meet with the seminar speakers »
• See all upcoming and past seminars »
• Sign up for Wu Tsai Neuro’s mailing list »
• Join the #neuroscience slack channel »

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Best regards,

Emily Elrod (she/they)
Programs Associate | Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University