Francesca Bartolini
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Microtubules are protein tracks inside nerve cells. They carry cargo along long nerve fibers and support synapses, the connections between neurons.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
- Topics
microtubules
tubulin
post-translational modifications
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Test whether unrelated CIPN-causing chemotherapy drugs share a mechanism of altering tubulin post-translational modifications early, before neuropathy symptoms appear, using cellular and preclinical models.
- Determine whether accumulation of delta-2 tubulin, a permanent alpha-tubulin modification linked to bortezomib nerve damage, drives axon degeneration caused by other CIPN drugs.
- Examine how delta-2 tubulin accumulation in dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons disrupts mitochondria and TRP ion channels to cause axon damage.
- Test whether loss of tubulin re-tyrosination by the enzyme TTL, or D2 tubulin buildup, alters synaptic microtubule dynamics in primary hippocampal neurons and mice.
- Determine whether loss of re-tyrosination activates the stress kinase AMPK to drive tau hyperphosphorylation and synaptic dysfunction, including in a human model of familial Alzheimer's disease.
More about the research
Their building block, tubulin, carries chemical tags known as post-translational modifications (PTMs). These tags shift as microtubules age. Two projects ask whether abnormal tubulin tagging drives nerve damage: one in the painful nerve injury caused by cancer drugs, and one in Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matters
CIPN affects most chemotherapy patients and lacks effective treatment, while Alzheimer's disease has no treatment that stops cognitive decline. By testing whether altered tubulin drives nerve damage, this work could identify tubulin-modifying enzymes as drug targets. Such drugs might prevent nerve injury and neuropathic pain, or rescue cognitive decline in sporadic and familial Alzheimer's. The CIPN work may also inform kidney and hearing toxicity from chemotherapy and other forms of peripheral neuropathy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hayley McLoughlin
University of Michigan, MI·Neuroscience
Characterize the onset and progression of peripheral neuropathy in two SCA3 mouse models using functional nerve assessments alongside histological analysis of peripheral nerve tissue.
Bin Pan
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX·Neuroscience
Establish whether CaMKII activity in peripheral sensory neurons suppresses pain, testing the hypothesis that reduced CaMKII signaling in dorsal root ganglion neurons maintains chronic pain in preclinical neuropathic and osteoarthritic pain models.
Huijuan Hu
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Neuroscience
Determine whether deleting or knocking down STIM2, a calcium-store sensor, in the mouse spinal cord reduces chronic itch in models of chronic itch, including DNFB- and DCP-induced dermatitis.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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