Jianing Lin

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, studying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from cellular mechanisms to clinical features. With a clinical background in neurology, I bridge laboratory and patient-oriented research on neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.

I focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research, bridging cellular mechanisms and clinical phenotypes. I work with ALS mouse models and combine experimental work with transcriptomic analysis. My central interest is in the non-neuronal contributors to motor neuron degeneration.

1. Microglia and their crosstalk. I am mapping the spatial organisation of microglial activation in ALS and the dysregulated SPP1 signalling that mediates glial crosstalk, and testing whether silencing SPP1 in an ALS mouse model is therapeutically tractable.

2. Extracellular matrix and remodelling. I am characterising dysregulated ECM signatures and PU.1-mediated ECM-remodelling gene networks in the ALS spinal cord, alongside the vascular alterations and fibroblast activation that accompany them. This work points to perivascular fibroblasts as an under-examined participant in the ALS neurovascular response.

In parallel, I study clinical profiles of ALS, an interest that follows from my previous training in clinical medicine and neurology. I have investigated how phenotypic heterogeneity, genetic background, and disease biomarkers collectively shape the complexity of the disease. Beyond ALS, I have examined how innate and adaptive immune cells contribute to neuroinflammatory disorders, from microglial resilience during demyelination to antigen-specific T cell responses in multiple sclerosis.