Megumi Mori, PhD- Gladstone Institutes and University of California San Francisco
Mechanisms of Seizure Prevention by Tau Reduction in Scn1aRX/+ Mice
Postdoctoral Fellowship- $75,000 over 1 year
Recipient of the Elliot Meskis Award for an Exceptional Postdoctoral Fellow which provides a $2,500 grant supplement for professional development.
Summary from the Investigator:
There is currently no cure for Dravet syndrome (DS), a childhood-onset epilepsy that can cause severe developmental impairments. We discovered that reducing brain levels of the microtubule-associated protein tau prevents seizures, premature death, and behavioral problems in a mouse model of DS. I aim to uncover how tau reduction protects against DS symptoms, paving the way for novel tau-related treatments. My preliminary data show that tau regulates proteins linked to epilepsy and intellectual disability. In this study, I aim to identify the molecular mechanisms and brain cell types that connect tau to these proteins. These insights will guide follow-up experiments to test whether targeting these proteins directly could have therapeutic benefits in DS. Ultimately, this work could open new paths to more effective DS therapies.
About the Investigator:
Megumi Mori is a postdoctoral scholar at the Gladstone Institutes, an independent nonprofit research institution affiliated with the University of California San Francisco. She completed her Ph.D. in Biology of Aging with Dr. Pejmun Haghighi at the Buck Institute and the University of Southern California, where she used electrophysiology and molecular neurobiology approaches to study the regulation of synaptic transmission strength. Motivated by a growing interest in how molecular disruptions reshape neural circuits in disease, she joined the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease—renowned for its leadership in tau biology, neurodegeneration, and epilepsy—to pursue more translational neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Lennart Mucke. Her current research integrates electrophysiology, proteomics, and molecular biology to uncover how tau contributes to the development of epilepsy. By defining disease-relevant pathways that disrupt excitatory-inhibitory balance, she aims to identify new therapeutic targets for epilepsy and related neurological disorders.