LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR NEUROPATHOLOGY

 

School of Natural Sciences

University of California, Merced

  

Masashi Kitazawa, Ph.D.

394 Science and Engineering 1

Tel: 209-228-4164

 

 

 

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Key words

Neuroscience, Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, tau, inclusion body myopathy

 

   RESEARCH INTERESTS  

Age-related neurodegenerative disorders are rapidly growing concerns in our society as aging populations increase.  Many of neurodegenerative disorders are slowly progressive and irreversible over the course of decades in our life.  These diseases slowly take your abilities – ability to think, ability to remember, ability to move your body, and ability to feel – away from you.  No effective treatments are yet discovered.  It is critical to understand the pathogenic mechanisms and develop therapeutic strategies before it is too late.  

 

My laboratory utilizes cell culture and animal models of the disease to uncover underlying disease mechanisms.  In particular, we examine how inflammatory responses, elicited by astrocytes and microglia, impact on neurodegenerative cascades in several neurodegenerative disorders.

 

 

  RESEARCH PROJECT

 

M.I.N.D. Project – Molecular mechanisms of Inflammatory and Neurodegenerative Diseases  (Research in Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia)

 

 

M.D. Project – Muscle Diseases  (Research in inclusion body myopathy)

 

 

  Neuroscience Research Group at UC Merced

 
Mike Cleary - Developmental neuroscience and stem cells

Fred Wolf - Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience

Jing Xu - Biophysics and neuroscience