Aleksandra Deczkowska

It is now clear that immune cells, classically known for their role in fighting infection, play key roles in brain development, homeostasis, and disease. Deczkowska lab uses state-of-the-art genomic technologies to decipher the nature of the interplay between the immune cells and the brain, and the role of these communication circuits in shaping brain function in physiology, aging and disease.

🔹Expertise: choroid plexus, neuroimmunology, microglia, Alzheimer’s disease
My research interests include neuro-immune interactions, the role of the gut-brain axis in the development,
physiology, and aging of the brain, and the physiological function of the immune system.

👩🏻‍🔬 Current position:
2021-now Head of the Brain Immune Communication Lab, Institut Pasteur, Paris
Education / Training
2023 Habilitation (HDR; Université Paris-Saclay).
2021 Post-doc in Immunogenomics (Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science).
2017 (July 20th) Ph.D. in Neuroimmunology (Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science).
2013 Master in Neuroimmunology (Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science).
2009 Engineer of Biotechnology (Warsaw University of Life Sciences and Gent University).

🏆 Achievements and Awards
2025 Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate)
2023 Joël Ménard Prize for research on Alzheimer’s disease, Foundation Alzheimer, France
2020 Azrieli Award for Systems Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science
2018 Dean’s fellowship for post-docs, Weizmann Institute of Science
2018 Dmitri Chorafas prize for outstanding PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science
2018/2015 Merck Innovation Cup participant and team coach, Merck KGaA
2017 6th NIF Winter School for Advanced Immunology (travel grant)
2017 EMBO Short-Term Fellowship, EMBO
2015 Otto Schwartz Fellowship for continuous excellence, Weizmann Institute of Science
2014 Dean’s fellowship for excellent MSc students, Weizmann Institute of Science

Aleksandra Deczkowska is a principal investigator and the head of the Brain-Immune Communication at
Institut Pasteur ‘s Immunology and Neuroscience departments. By integrating tools of single-cell genomics,
immunology, and neuroscience, mouse models as well as analysis of human samples, Aleks’ lab aims to
identify key mechanisms of physiological body-brain communication via the choroid plexus and the skull
marrow niche. Her vision is that in the future, modulation of the immune cells and signals, and the brain
borders themselves, may be deployed to cure neurological disease.
During her PhD in the lab of Prof. Michal Schwartz and post-doc with Ido Amit (Weizmann Institut of
Science), Aleksandra’s discovered new immune processes contributing to brain aging and metabolic
disease (Science, 2014; Nature Comms, 2017; Nature Medicine, 2021). Aleksandra has contributed
reviews and opinion articles in leading journals discussing the importance of immune cells and signals in
brain maintenance, aging, and neurodegeneration (Nature Neuroscience 2018, Cell 2018; Cell 2020; Nat.
Reviews Immunology 2025). Overall, she authored 20+ peer-reviewed articles cited 9500+ times (H-
index=21). She has given invited talks at international meetings in immunology, neuroimmunology and
genomics, and obtained excellence prizes and fellowships, including the Joël Ménard Prize for research on
Alzheimer’s disease in 2023 and ERC starting grant in 2022. In 2025, she was named a “Highly Cited
Researcher”.

Full publication record