Siling Du

Program: Immunology

Current advisor: Jonathan Kipnis, PhD

Undergraduate university: Nankai University, 2020

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
Dura mater immunity in neurodegeneration.

Graduate publications
Hamagami N, Kapadia D, Barclay KM, Huang Y, Abduljawad N, Cheng Z, McLaughlin L, Singhania D, Ding X, Yang J, Sun Z, Karra V, Du S, Bayguinov P, Yu G, Li YE, Gabel HW, Li Q. 2026 State-specific enhancer landscapes govern microglial plasticity. Immunity, ():Online ahead of print. PMCID:

Mamuladze T, Zaninelli TH, Smyth LCD, Wu Y, Abramishvili D, Silva R, Imbiakha B, Verhaege D, Du S, Papadopoulos Z, Gu X, Lee D, Storck S, Perrin RJ, Smirnov I, Dong X, Hu S, Diamond MS, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Kipnis J. 2025 Mast cells regulate the brain-dura interface and CSF dynamics. Cell, 188(20):5487-5498.e16. PMCID: PMC12380238

Chen J, Du S, Cheng W, Amrute JM, Kim MW, Ohara RA, Han J, Jo S, Kim L, Wang Z, Song H, Postoak JL, Kim S, Randolph GJ, Kipnis J, Murphy TL, Murphy KM. 2025 Transcription factor Maf promotes expression of repressor Zeb2 to drive microglia development in primitive hematopoiesis. Immunity, ():Online ahead of print. PMCID:

Kim K, Abramishvili D, Du S, Papadopoulos Z, Cao J, Herz J, Smirnov I, Thomas JL, Colonna M, Kipnis J. 2025 Meningeal lymphatics-microglia axis regulates synaptic physiology. Cell, 188(10):2705-2719.e23. PMCID: PMC12086007

Du S, Zhou Y, Li D, Lier J, Cella M, Tada M, Hamasaki H, Wu J, Cai Z, Orthmann-Murphy JL, Kakita A, Kipnis J, Bergner CG, Colonna M. 2025 Mutations in the human CSF1R gene impact microglia’s maintenance of brain white matter integrity. Nat Immunol, 26(7):1198–211. PMCID:

Du S, Kipnis J. 2025 Replacing microglia to treat a brain disease. Science, 389(6756):129-30

Smyth LCD, Xu D, Okar SV, Dykstra T, Rustenhoven J, Papadopoulos Z, Bhasiin K, Kim MW, Drieu A, Mamuladze T, Blackburn S, Gu X, Gaitán MI, Nair G, Storck SE, Du S, White MA, Bayguinov P, Smirnov I, Dikranian K, Reich DS, Kipnis J. 2024 Identification of direct connections between the dura and the brain. Nature, 627(8002):165-73. PMCID: PMC11254388

Gao W*, Kim MW*, Dykstra T, Du S, Boskovic P, Lichti CF, Ruiz-Cardozo MA, Gu X, Weizman Shapira T, Rustenhoven J, Molina C, Smirnov I, Merbl Y, Ray WZ, Kipnis J. 2024 Engineered T cell therapy for central nervous system injury. Nature, 634(8034):693-701. PMCID:

Ou F, Liu TT, Desai P, Ferris ST, Kim S, Shen H, Ohara RA, Jo S, Chen J, Postoak JL, Du S, Diamond MS, Murphy TL, Murphy KM. 2024 Optimization of the Irf8 +32-kb enhancer disrupts dendritic cell lineage segregation. Nat Immunol, 25(11):2043-56. PMCID:

Brioschi S, Belk JA, Peng V, Molgora M, Rodrigues PF, Nguyen KM, Wang S, Du S, Wang WL, Grajales-Reyes GE, Ponce JM, Yuede CM, Li Q, Baer JM, DeNardo DG, Gilfillan S, Cella M, Satpathy AT, Colonna M. 2023 A Cre-deleter specific for embryo-derived brain macrophages reveals distinct features of microglia and border macrophages. Immunity, 56(5):1027-1045.e8. PMCID: PMC10175109

Drieu A, Du S, Kipnis M, Bosch ME, Herz J, Lee C, Jiang H, Manis M, Ulrich JD, Kipnis J, Holtzman DM, Gratuze M. 2023 Parenchymal border macrophages regulate tau pathology and tau-mediated neurodegeneration. Life Sci Alliance, 6(11):e202302087. PMCID: PMC10415611

Rustenhoven J, Pavlou G, Storck SE, Dykstra T, Du S, Wan Z, Quintero D, Scallan JP, Smirnov I, Kamm RD, Kipnis J. 2023 Age-related alterations in meningeal immunity drive impaired CNS lymphatic drainage. J Exp Med, 220(7):e20221929. PMCID: PMC10083715

Drieu A, Du S, Storck SE, Rustenhoven J, Papadopoulos Z, Dykstra T, Zhong F, Kim K, Blackburn S, Mamuladze T, Harari O, Karch CM, Bateman RJ, Perrin R, Farlow M, Chhatwal J; Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network; Hu S, Randolph GJ, Smirnov I, Kipnis J. 2022 Parenchymal border macrophages regulate the flow dynamics of the cerebrospinal fluid. Nature, 611(7936):585-593. PMCID: PMC9899827

Wang S, Sudan R, Peng V, Zhou Y, Du S, Yuede CM, Lei T, Hou J, Cai Z, Cella M, Nguyen K, Poliani PL, Beatty WL, Chen Y, Cao S, Lin K, Rodrigues C, Ellebedy AH, Gilfillan S, Brown GD, Holtzman DM, Brioschi S, Colonna M. 2022 TREM2 drives microglia response to amyloid-β via SYK-dependent and -independent pathways. Cell, 185(22):4153-4169.e19. PMCID: PMC9625082

Mazzitelli JA, Smyth LCD, Cross KA, Dykstra T, Sun J, Du S, Mamuladze T, Smirnov I, Rustenhoven J, Kipnis J. 2022 Cerebrospinal fluid regulates skull bone marrow niches via direct access through dural channels. Nat Neurosci, 25(5):555-60. PMCID: PMC9081158