Prof. Uri Ashery

Our main focus currently is on the following directions:

• Investigating synaptic plasticity processes at the hippocampal mossy fiber synapses:
  • Investigating molecular mechanism of synaptic plasticity.
  • Elucidating mechanisms of cAMP dependent synaptic plasticity.
  • Correlating between synaptic plasticity to learning and memory processes.
• Elucidating the mitigating effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse models:
  • Investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that are regulated following HBOT in AD mouse models.
  • Exploring the physiological effect of HBOT on synaptic activity and plasticity and on blood flow.
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• Identifying early biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease (PD):
  • Characterizing early steps in alpha synuclein aggregation.
  • Investigating the effect of alpha synuclein aggregation on neuronal activity.

We employ a wide range of methods including: Electrophysiology, Slice recording, Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF), Super resolution microscopy (STORM, STED), Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), Molecular biology, Model simulation, Multi electrode array (MEA) recording, Immunohistochemistry and Behavioral tests.

Selected Publications

• Perets N, Betzer O, Shapira R, Brenstein S, Angel A, Sadan T, et al. Golden Exosomes Selectively Target Brain Pathologies in Neurodegenerative and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Nano Lett. 2019 Feb 27;acs.nanolett.8b04148.
• Shapira R, Solomon B, Efrati S, Frenkel D, Ashery U. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy ameliorates pathophysiology of 3xTg-AD mouse model by attenuating neuroinflammation. Neurobiol Aging. 2018 Feb;62:105–19.
• Michaeli L, Gottfried I, Bykhovskaia M, Ashery U. Phosphatidylinositol (4, 5)-bisphosphate targets double C2 domain protein B to the plasma membrane. Traffic. 2017 Dec;18(12):825–39.
• Cazares VA, Njus MM, Manly A, Saldate JJ, Subramani A, Ben-Simon Y, et al. Dynamic Partitioning of Synaptic Vesicle Pools by the SNARE-Binding Protein Tomosyn. J Neurosci. 2016;36(44):11208–22.
• Ben-Simon Y, Rodenas-Ruano A, Alviña K, Lam AD, Stuenkel EL, Castillo PE, et al. A Combined Optogenetic-Knockdown Strategy Reveals a Major Role of Tomosyn in Mossy Fiber Synaptic Plasticity. Cell Rep. 2015 Jul 21;12(3):396–404.
• Lavi A, Perez O, Ashery U. Shaping Neuronal Network Activity by Presynaptic Mechanisms. Gutkin BS, editor. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 Sep 15;11(9):e1004438.
• Ehmann N, van de Linde S, Alon A, Ljaschenko D, Keung XZ, Holm T, et al. Quantitative super-resolution imaging of Bruchpilot distinguishes active zone states. Nat Commun. 2014 Aug 18;5(1):4650.
• Barak B, Okun E, Ben-Simon Y, Lavi A, Shapira R, Madar R, et al. Neuron-specific expression of tomosyn1 in the mouse hippocampal dentate gyrus impairs spatial learning and memory. Neuromolecular Med. 2013 Jun 22;15(2):351–63.
• Lipstein N, Sakaba T, Cooper BH, Lin K-H, Strenzke N, Ashery U, et al. Dynamic control of synaptic vesicle replenishment and short-term plasticity by Ca(2+)-calmodulin-Munc13-1 signaling. Neuron. 2013 Jul 10;79(1):82–96.
• Bar-On D, Wolter S, van de Linde S, Heilemann M, Nudelman G, Nachliel E, et al. Super-resolution imaging reveals the internal architecture of nano-sized syntaxin clusters. J Biol Chem. 2012 Aug 3;287(32):27158–67.