Agalliu Lab
Location and Contact Information
- Phone 212-305-0323
- Fax 212-305-0241
Principal Investigator
The Agalliu laboratory is investigating several fundamental issues in the biology of the mammalian blood-brain barrier (BBB):
- The mechanisms that govern the development and maintenance of the BBB
- How structural components of the BBB are affected in diseases of the brain and spinal cord where barrier function is impaired including stroke, MS and PANDAS
- The role of Wnt signaling in repairing the damaged BBB in CNS diseases
Recent News:
How common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children
And why many doctors do not realise it
Source: The Economist
September 20, 2023
The Economist has covered some of Dr. Agalliu's Lab work on the immune mechanisms by which Group A Streptococcus infections trigger neuropsychiatric sequelae in the brain. [read article] Note: Accessing this article requires The Economist subscription.
Lab Members
Uğur Akcan, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Uğur earned his BS in Biology at Marmara University, in Turkey. He then completed a Master’s degree in neuroscience at Istanbul University, where he studied immune system dysregulation in bipolar disorder.
For his PhD in neuroscience, Uğur joined the lab of Prof. Mehmet Kaya at Koç University, investigating effects of histamine on the blood-brain barrier. His dissertation, completed in 2021, focused on identifying distinct roles of histamine receptor subtypes in effects on BBB permeability.
In the Agalliu lab, which he joined as a postdoctoral research scientist in 2022.
Project: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus (PANDAS)
Sukanya Sarkar, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Sukanya earned her BS (Hons) in Microbiology from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India, followed by an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Calcutta. During her master’s, she studied the infective transformation of Leishmania donovani upon glucose starvation, the causal parasite of visceral leishmaniasis disease in the lab of Prof. Pradeep K. Das at ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences. Subsequently, for a year she worked as a junior research biologist at Curadev Pharmaceuticals, Delhi, India where she investigated the efficiency of small molecule inhibitors of acyl-CoA synthetase short-chain family member 2 (ACSS2) in targeting acetate uptake in tumor cells under hypoxic conditions.
With a prestigious individual fellowship from DST-INSPIRE program awarded by the Government of India, she started her doctoral work under Dr. Subhas C. Biswas at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), India where she was intrigued by the role of astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Through her PhD work, she discovered that astrocyte-secreted cytokine tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1) has a neuroprotective potential and ameliorates memory deficits in two different rodent AD models by activating Akt and BDNF signaling pathways. As a part of her thesis project, she conducted electrophysiology studies in the laboratory of Prof. B.N. Srikumar, NIMHANS, Bangalore. In addition, she contributed to two collaborative projects with Dr. Krishnananda Chattopadhyay at CSIR-IICB studying the folding dynamics and aggregation of protein molecules such as alpha-synuclein (toxic Parkinson’s disease protein) in neuronal cells. She received her PhD degree in 2023.
Sukanya started as a postdoctoral research scientist in the Agalliu lab in January 2024. She is interested in exploring specialized glutamatergic astrocytes' role in shaping and maintaining the blood-brain barrier in health and disease.
Danny Jamoul
- Technician
Danny graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a B.S in Molecular Biology. During his undergraduate years, his research focused on the organic synthesis and characterization of molecules from a Lawsone- Lysine/Arginine reaction in Dr. Gloria Proni laboratory.
After attending the Columbia Access Neuroscience (CAN) program, Danny learned of the Agalliu lab’s work on the blood-brain barrier and joined in June of 2023 as a summer student and studied how neuronal activity regulates the blood-retina barrier in development under the mentorship of Dr. Saptarshi Biswas. Following graduation, he joined the Agalliu lab as a research assistant and studied how a small GTPase, Rab7a, is critical for degrading junctional proteins following ischemic stroke. While he is involved in a diverse range of research areas, his current work aims to understand the development and maintenance of the blood-retina barrier.
