Zebrafish microglia labelled using transgenic reporter Tg(mpeg1.1:GFP-CAAX): Green show synaptic content Tg(NBT:Synaptophysin:TdT); Red within microglia.

Microglia acutely impact neuronal activity and make activity-dependent contacts with dendritic spines in mammals. This strongly indicates that microglia play a critical role in maintaining healthy neural circuitry, which depends on their activity-dependent interactions with synapses. How these activity-dependent microglial-synapse interactions maintain a healthy circuit though is just beginning to be investigated. We are using genetic, pharmacological, scRNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and imaging approaches to investigate microglial-synaptic interactions during development and neuronal activity to identify novel mechanisms.