Johannes Schlachetzki, M.D.

Dr. Schlachetzki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and a neurologist with expertise in clinical neurology, neurodegeneration, immunology, and epigenetics. His research program focuses on decoding immune cell heterogeneity and their impact on aging and neurodegeneration by investigating both underlying mechanisms and identifying therapeutic targets.

Dr. Schlachetzki has pioneered studies that deeply profiled the epigenetic landscape of human microglia and demonstrated that chronic peripheral inflammation elicits brain region-specific microglial responses. He studies how glial cells, particularly microglia, contribute to disease pathogenesis through epigenetic dysregulation, DNA damage, and inflammatory signaling. He has developed advanced methods to isolate and profile brain cell types using flow cytometry, single-cell/nucleus RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and ChIP-seq to uncover regulatory networks driving disease.