April 22, 2024, Xin won the Annette Karmiloff-Smith and Michael Harpold Dissertation Award from the Trisomy 21 Research Society. Congratulations, Xin!
April 15, 2024, Jiny successfully defended her MS thesis! Congratulations, Jiny!
October 1-6,2023, Nathan and Tao attended and both gave podium talks at the 12th International AMPK meeting at Lorne, Australia. Nathan won the "Bruce E. Kemp Early Career Award". Congratulations, Nathan!
On September 12, 2023, Madeleine (Maddi) Bibby joined the Ma lab as a rotation student. Maddi currently is a 1st year PhD student at Wake Forest (MCB track). Welcome, Maddi!
On September 11, 2023, Hannah Marshall presented a seminar entitled "The Role of eEF2K in Learning and Memory and Alzheimer's Disease" for the Center for Redox Biology and Medicine Seminar series. Congratulations, Hannah, for a wonderful presentation!
On September 6, 2023, Nicole Wu joined the Ma lab as an undergraduate researcher. Nicole currently is a junior at Wake Forest University. Welcome, Nicole!
On July 7, 2023, Dr. Tian Li joined the Ma lab as a postdoctoral research fellow. Welcome, Tian!
On June 29, 2023, Jason Zhao joined the Ma lab as a high school student intern. Welcome, Jason!
On June 16, 2023, Alex Duncan joined the Ma lab as a research technician. Welcome, Alex!
On June 5, 2023, Noelle Nicol joined the Ma lab as a PhD student. Welcome, Noelle!
On June 5, 2023, Brighid Boylan joined the Ma lab as an undergraduate student intern. Welcome, Brighid!
On April 17, 2023, Nathan Swift successfully defended his MS thesis! Nathan is staying at the Ma lab as a Ph.D. student. Congratulations, Nathan!
On April 18, 2023, Xin Wang successfully defended his PhD thesis! Xin is staying at the Ma lab as a research fellow. Congratulations, Xin!
On April 13, 2023, Adam Manuel won the Wake Forest University Summer Research Fellow Award (URECA Fellowship). Congratulations, Adam!
On March 22, 2023, Ma lab was awarded a new 5-year R01 grant from NIH/NIA to study the roles of GSK3 signaling in AD.
On February 26, 2023, Sherry’s paper entitled “Brain-specific repression of the α1 isoform of AMP-activated protein kinase alleviates object recognition impairments in aged mice” was officially published in “Aging”. Congratulations to Sherry, Wenzhong (co-first author), and Xin (co-author)!
On February 14, 2023, Xin’s paper entitled “In-Depth Proteomic Analysis of De Novo Proteome in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease” was officially published in “The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease”. Congratulations to Xin and Sherry (co-author)!
On September 9, 2022, Nicole’s paper entitled “Homozygous knockout of eEF2K alleviates cognitive deficits in APP/PS1 AD model mice independent of brain Aβ pathology “was published in “Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience”. Congratulations to Nicole and all the co-authors!
On August 2, 2022, Hannah’s paper entitled “Characterization of early Alzheimer’s like pathological alterations in non-human primates with aging: A pilot study” was officially published in “The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease”. Congratulations to Hannah and all co-authors!
On December 21, 2021, Nicole’s paper entitled “Antagonists targeting eEF2 kinase rescue multiple aspects of pathophysiology in Alzheimer’s disease model mice” was officially published in “Journal of Neurochemistry”. The paper has been selected as a cover article with editorial highlights. Congratulations to Nicole and all the co-authors!
On August 9, 2021, Xin’s paper entitled “Isoform-specific dysregulation of AMP-activated protein kinase signaling in a non-human primate model of Alzheimer’s disease” has been officially published in “Neurobiology of Disease”. Congratulations to Xin and Sherry (co-author)!
In June 2021, Wenzhong’s paper entitled “Brain-specific suppression of AMPKα2 isoform impairs cognition and hippocampal LTP by PERK-mediated eIF2α phosphorylation” has been officially published in “Molecular Psychiatry”. Congratulations to Wenzhong and Sherry (co-1st author)!
In February 2021, Wenzhong’s paper entitled “Suppression of the kinase for elongation factor 2 alleviates mGluR-LTD impairments in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” has been officially published in “Neurobiology of Aging”. Congratulations to Wenzhong and Sherry (co-author)!
On January 25, 2021, Wenzhong’s paper entitled “Protein expression alteration in hippocampus upon genetic repression of AMPKα isoforms” has been officially published in “Hippocampus”. Congratulations to Wenzhong, and co-authors Sherry and Xin!
In November 2020, the paper by Saahj and Hannah (co-first authors) entitled “Repression of eEF2 kinase improves deficits in novel object recognition memory in aged mice” has been officially published in “Neurobiology of Aging”. Congratulations to Saahj and Hannah!
On April 22, 2020, Hannah successfully defended her MS thesis (remotely, of course)! Congratulations, Hannah!
On April 16, 2020, Wenzhong's paper entitled "Brain-specific suppression of AMPKα2 isoform impairs cognition and hippocampal LTP by PERK-mediated eIF2α phosphorylation" has been officially accepted by "Molecular Psychiatry". Congratulations to Wenzhong and Sherry (co-first author), and all contributing authors.
On April 16, 2020, Xin's paper entitled "Decreased levels of blood AMPKα1 but not AMPKα2 isoform in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease: a pilot study" has been officially accepted by "The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease". Congratulations to Xin, and all contributing authors.
On March 27, 2020, Saahj gave a wonderful public talk and successfully defended his MS thesis! Congratulations, Saahj!
On March 17, 2020, Helena's paper entitled "Brain-specific repression of AMPKα1 isoform alleviates pathophysiology in Alzheimer’s disease model mice" has been officially accepted by "The Journal of Clinical Investigation". Congratulations to Helena and Wenzhong (co-first author), and all contributing authors!
On September 4th, 2019, Wenzhong's paper entitled "Memory Decline and Behavioral Inflexibility in Aged Mice Are Correlated with Dysregulation of Protein Synthesis Capacity" has been officially published at the "Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience". Congratulations to Wenzhong and Sherry!
Nicole is awarded the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) Young Investigator Scholarship and is invited for a podium talk at the 20th International Conference on Alzheimer's Drug Discovery on September 16 at Jersey City, NJ. Congratulations, Nicole!
On May 8, 2019, Nicole and Helena presented a translational talk entitled "In Search of Novel Biomarkers and Therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease" as part of the Sticht Center Aging Conference series.
On May 1, 2019, Antoine (Dibs) Almonte joined the lab as a Research Assistant Professor. Welcome, Dibs!
On April 22, 2019, Jennifer Stern won the Florence Robinson Neuroscience Award, given each year to an outstanding Wake Forest student graduating with a minor in Neuroscience. Congratulations, Jen!
On April 12, 2019, Helena delivered a great seminar and successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Roles of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase α Isoforms in Alzheimer’s Disease". Congratulations, Dr. Zimmermann! Helena will work as a postdoctoral fellow at the laboratory of Dr. Robert Vassar at Northwestern University.
On February 1, 2019, our paper entitled "Genetic reduction of eEF2 kinase alleviates pathophysiology in Alzheimer's disease model mice" has been officially published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI)!
https://www.jci.org/articles/view/122954
Congratulations to all the contributing authors, particularly Brenna and Wenzhong!
On December 7, 2018, Steve (Stephen Day) gave a great seminar and successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Glucagon-like peptide cleavage product as a potential therapeutic to improve cognition in Down syndrome". Congratulations, Dr. Day!
Nicole, Xin, Helena, and Tao attended the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting on November 3-7 in San Diego. Nicole and Xin did poster presentation and Helena gave a talk at a nanosymposium that was chaired by Tao!
On October 27, the Ma lab participated in the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's at Winston-Salem. Good job, everyone!
On September 22, Tao attended the first North Carolin State Go Championship Tournament in Raleigh and won 1st place in Division B.
On September 19, Tao was awarded Wake Forest School of Medicine Early Career in Basic Science Investigator Award.
Hannah Jester, Saahj Gosrani, and Adline Metayer joined the lab as master students. Welcome!
As an invited speaker, Tao presented“Impaired mRNA translational capacity is correlated with aging-dependent memory deficits and behavioral inflexibility” at the International Neuroscience and Psychiatry Summit in Tai’an, China.
The paper "Genetic Removal of eIF2α Kinase PERK in Mice Enables Hippocampal L-LTP Independent of mTORC1 Activity" has been officially published in "The Journal of Neurochemistry", and selected as a cover article with an editorial highlight! Congratulations to all, particularly Helena and Wenzhong, who are the co-first authors.
July 22-26, Helena and Tao attended the Alzheimer's Association International Conference at Chicago. Helena presented a poster entitled "Brain-specific repression of AMPKα1 alleviates memory deficits and synaptic failure in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease".
On July 9, 2018, Dr. Qian Yang joined the lab as a research fellow. Qian got her Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, and she is an expert in electrophysiology. Welcome, Qian!
In June, Tao has been invited to serve as a member of the Cellular and Molecular Biology of Neurodegeneration (CMND) study section of NIH.
On April 16, 2018, Brenna successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Role of Translation Elongation Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis.". Congratulations, Dr. Beckelman!
On April 23, 2018, Xin successfully defended his MS thesis entitled "AMPKalpha Signaling Dysregulation in AD Monkey Model and Human AD Patients". Congratulations, Xin!
Brenna has been selected as the recipient of the Wake Forest Gordor A. Melson Outstanding Doctoral Student Award for 2018. Congratulations, Brenna!
