Clara Hibbs

clara-hibbs@ou.edu

My research focuses on how prenatal immune challenges shape brain aging, with a particular emphasis on microglia, the brain's resident immune cells. Using a mouse model of maternal immune activation, I investigate why female offspring show resilience to age-related cognitive decline and reduced neuroinflammation later in life. My current work examines whether estrogen receptor signaling in microglia promotes this resilience, with the goal of identifying mechanisms that support healthy cognitive aging and could inform future interventions for age-related neurodegenerative diseases.