Jeffery Twiss
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Neuroscience
Damaged peripheral nerves, such as those in the arms and legs, can regrow, but only by about 1–2 millimeters a day. That slow pace limits recovery after injury.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
- Topics
axon regeneration
peripheral nerve injury
nerve regeneration
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether KHSRP, an RNA-binding protein that destabilizes mRNAs, controls peripheral nerve axon regeneration through a mechanism within the neuron, building on faster regeneration seen in KHSRP knockout mice.
- Determine whether the rise in axonal KHSRP after injury limits regrowth by destabilizing axonal mRNAs that encode regeneration-associated proteins, in competition with the stabilizing protein HuD.
- Define how KHSRP's protein interactome, the set of proteins it partners with, influences its functions inside axons.
More about the research
Regrowing axons, the long fibers that carry nerve signals, make some of their proteins on site from messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which carry a gene's instructions to the cell's protein-making machinery. The longer an mRNA survives, the more protein it can make. Yet little is known about how mRNA survival is controlled inside axons, or how it affects regeneration.
Why it matters
People with nerve injuries often face slow and incomplete recovery because axons regrow at only 1–2 millimeters a day. Identifying how KHSRP limits regeneration by breaking down local mRNAs could point to new strategies for encouraging and speeding axon regrowth in the peripheral and central nervous systems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Michael D Sheets
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biology
Define how Bicaudal-C (Bicc1), an RNA-binding protein, selects its target mRNAs, testing whether multiple independent RNA-binding surfaces in its binding domain determine specificity, using RNA-protein biochemistry and genome-wide approaches.
The school
University of South Carolina-Columbia: 22 labs on PI Pages, $277M a year on research, 425 research doctorates a year.
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