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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Anxiety is a naturally occurring adaptive response to potential threat, and inappropriate overrepresentation of the anxiety response can classify an anxiety disorder. Women are likelier than men to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders, ...
My research is designed to test the hypothesis that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the non-coding region of the GCH1 gene suppresses GCH1 mRNA translation and generates a novel peptide, and that both of these phenomena...
The 26S proteasome is the largest and most complicated chambered protease known. It is responsible for regulated degradation of proteins within all eukaryotic cells, and is essential for maintaining protein homeostasis. Disruptions to...
Keloids are disfiguring, painful and itchy but benign fibrotic skin lesions characterized by excessive dermal fibroblast proliferation and collagen deposition. They occur in susceptible individuals due to abnormal wound healing. Keloids...
Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is a major public health concern, resulting in detrimental health effects in the mother and her offspring. The adverse behavioral consequences for children with developmental nicotine exposure include...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-encapsulated structures released by cells which carry signaling factors, proteins and microRNAs that mediate intercellular communication. Accumulating evidence supports an important role of EVs...
Genetic animal models have become an increasingly useful tool in addressing pathophysiological changes in neuropsychiatric disorders at the molecular, synaptic and circuitry levels. Previous genetic and postmortem studies have identified...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) embodies a spectrum of complex, pervasive, and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders. There is not one single identified cause, but is instead composed of dynamically diverse etiologies and...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous population of membrane-bound nanoparticles that are essential mediators of cell-to-cell communication. They package diverse cargo that includes proteins, lipids, RNA, and DNA. EVs are...
Depression affects approximately 7% of adults in the US annually and is one of the most common mental disorders. One striking aspect of this disorder, is that it affects women at about twice the rate as compared to men. Furthermore, ...
Psychosis may arise from an altered modulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system. However, the source of upstream disturbance and the underlying neural circuitry remain unknown. It is generally agreed that genetic susceptibility...
Accurate chromosome segregation is vital to maintain genomic integrity. Chromosome missegregation, or aneuploidy, contributes to cancer development and conditions like down syndrome (Trisomy 21). Chromosomes are attached to microtubules...
Liver fibrosis is the common end stage of all chronic liver diseases, such as chronic viral hepatitis, alcoholism, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis, alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency and some rare metabolic diseases....
Self-sustaining oscillators regulate diverse aspects of physiology in mammals such as insulin secretion, cell cycle regulation, and circadian rhythmicity. The circadian clock is based upon several interacting feedback loops, which affect...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane enclosed vesicles released from cells that act as mediators of intercellular communication and are involved in normal physiological processes as well as pathological conditions. EVs can transfer...
Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy report changes in behavior commonly referred to as “chemo brain.” It is hypothesized that neuroinflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of “chemo-brain.” I examined the effects of naproxen, ...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) include exosomes and microvesicles, and are important mediators of cell-to-cell communication in healthy and pathological environments. Packed with biological information and present in a variety of...
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a leading monogenetic cause of intellectual disability and autism. It is caused by transcriptional silencing of the FMR1 gene and the resultant loss of its product, Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP)....
LARP6 in Type I Collagen Expression and Embryonic Development: Role in Partition of Collagen mRNA to ER Membrane and in PIh1D3 Mediated Xenopus Development
Excessive production of Type I collagen is the hallmark of fibrotic disorders. The production of Type I collagen is mainly regulated at post-transcriptional level by a COLLAGEN mRNAs binding protein La ribonucleoprotein domain family...
In preclinical research, females are often excluded because of the presumed variability associated with the cyclic fluctuations of the estrous cycle and pregnancy. But how much variability in biological data actually occurs as a result...
Understanding the neural and genetic basis of complex behaviors is a major outstanding question in neurobiology. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, displays innate, complex reproductive behaviors. These behaviors are regulated by...
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of epilepsy in adults, and patients with TLE often suffer from seizures refractory to antiepileptic drugs. A deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of TLE is critical for...
I report the effects of aspartame on anxiety-like behavior, neurotransmitter signaling and gene expression in the amygdala, a brain region associated with the regulation of anxiety and fear responses. C57BL/6 mice consumed drinking water...
In addition to the known behavioral and cognitive impairments, including memory deficits, depression, and anxiety associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), there is an increased risk for new onset heavy weekly drinking, binge...
Possibly affecting at least 1.5 million Americans today, cardiomyopathy greatly contributes to the reign of heart disease as the number one killer in the United States. Consisting of four main disease manifestations (hypertrophic, ...
Fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) is an angiogenic factor with therapeutic potential for the treatment of ischemic disease. FGF-1 has low intrinsic thermostability and is characteristically formulated with heparin as a stabilizing agent...
Cardiomyopathies are a heterogenous group of myocardial disorders that are frequently associated with a genetic etiology. The cardiac/slow skeletal troponin C gene (TNNC1) encodes a sarcomeric protein (TNNC1) that has a central role in...
This dissertation focuses on microtubule assembly mechanisms and functions in dividing and non-dividing cells. In dividing cells, centrosome is the major microtubule-organizing center (MTOC). Ninein (Nin) is a centrosomal protein whose...
Depression is a devastating disease that is the leading cause of disability worldwide. One reason for its massive disease burden is that classical antidepressants require several weeks of administration to take effect, and they are only...
Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is a multifunctional transcription factor that can activate or repress transcription depending on the promotor and/or the co-factors recruited. YY1 is phosphorylated in various signaling pathways and is critical for...
Zika virus (ZIKV) became a global health concern in 2016 due to its links to congenital microcephaly and other birth defects. ZIKV is part of the genus flavivirus, a class of positive(+)- sense single-stranded RNA viruses. Flavivirus...
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the commonest of adult epilepsies, often refractory to antiepileptic medications, whose prevention and treatment rely on understanding basic pathophysiological mechanisms in interlinked structures of the...
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing brain disease characterized by compulsive drinking despite negative consequences. While a majority of the world’s population consumes alcohol in a controlled manner, there is a subset of...
A Tale of Two Drosophila Centrosome Proteins: The Regulation of Cilium Functions by Rootletin, and the Conversion of Sperm Mitochondria into Microtubule-Organizing Centers by CnnT
Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, this dissertation dissects molecular and biological functions of three proteins: Rootletin (Root), testis-specific Centrosomin (CnnT) and Spermitin (Sprn). Centrosomes are...
The Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC) prevents anaphase onset in response to chromosome attachment defects. Bipolar kinetochore attachment is required for SAC silencing which allows for anaphase onset and the release of the phosphatase, ...
Anhedonia, or difficulty experiencing pleasure, is a core deficit in depression. Depressed patients expressing anhedonia show increased treatment resistance and greater suicidal ideation when compared to non-anhedonic depressed patients....
Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH, MIM 251200) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that results from a loss of neural progenitors in the embryonic neocortex. Patients with MCPH have a significantly small brain and exhibit...
The pancreas is an organ located in the abdomen. It is made up of exocrine cells and endocrine cells. In particular, the endocrine cells include hormone-producing cells that form clusters within the pancreas, called islets of Langerhans....
Accumulating evidence suggests that schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain’s communication, a result of functional and structural dysconnectivities. Patients with schizophrenia exhibit irregular neuronal circuit and network activity, ...
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) gives rise to a progressive disease state that results in many adverse and long-term neurological consequences, including deficits in learning and memory, development of major depressive disorder, and...
The centrosome, comprised of a pair of centrioles, is the best-studied microtubule-organizing center (MTOC). However, after utilizing the centrosome to organize the mitotic spindle during cell division, differentiated cells will often...
Maintaining the balance of protein synthesis and degradation is essential for efficient proteostasis and organismal health. The 26S proteasome is a large, multisubunit proteolytic complex that functions as the primary mechanism for...
Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is a highly conserved, multifunctional zinc finger transcription factor. It has been shown to regulate genes involved in cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, cell growth and proliferation, differentiation, and development....
In the United States approximately 17, 000 new spinal cord injury cases occur annually. Even with timely medical interventions, the primary injury is often exacerbated by a period of inflammation and pathological vascular changes that...
The functionality of a protein depends on its correct folding, but newly synthesized proteins are susceptible to aberrant folding. Misfolded proteins are aggregation prone and protein aggregation are associated with many human diseases, ...
Circadian clocks are endogenous timekeepers, but they need to be synchronized, or entrained, with external cues such as solar time to stay in harmony with the external environment. The circadian clocks give selective advantages to humans...
Symmetry is a property commonly observed in nature and is closer to the rule than the exception in the proteome; with a vast majority of proteins inherently displaying symmetry. Many protein architectures exhibit evidence of internal...
Tight regulation of the cell cycle is essential to maintain genome integrity. Errors at any stage during cell cycle, including replication, chromosome segregation, and mitotic exit, can lead to genome instability, which has been shown to...
One of the core pathogenic mechanisms for schizophrenia is believed to be dysfunction in glutamatergic synaptic transmissions, particularly hypofunction of N-methyl D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). In addition, previous genetic and...
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the most common form of dementia. Like many neurological disorders, Alzheimer’s disease has a sex-biased epidemiological profile, affecting approximately twice as many...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
