A. Kimberley McAllister

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A. Kimberley McAllister
BornJune 30, 1966 (age 57)
Washington, D.C.
EducationPh.D.
Alma materDuke University (Ph.D.) Davidson College
Organization(s)University of California, Davis
Known forDevelopmental and cellular/molecular neuroscience, neuroimmunology
Websitehttps://sites.google.com/ucdavis.edu/mcallisterlab

A. Kimberley McAllister[1] is an American cellular and molecular neuroscientist who specializes in synapse biology and neuroimmunology. She is director of a center for Neuroscience[2] and a Professor of Neurology[3] and Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior[4] and the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics.[5]

Early life and education[edit]

McAllister grew up in Great Falls, Virginia. She studied biology through internships with John Trott.[6] McAllister pursued neurobiology research at Duke University in 1992 in the laboratory of Lawrence C. Katz.[7]

Academic career[edit]

McAllister was trained as a developmental neurobiologist by Lawrence C. Katz and Donald C. Lo and studied the role for neurotrophins in regulating dendritic growth of pyramidal neurons in the developing visual cortex.[8] During that time, she adapted biolistic transfection for use in transfecting neurons in organotypic slices.[9][10]

During the summer of 1998, she was a Grass Fellow in Neurophysiology at the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole.[11]

Her team made discoveries about the initial mechanisms of synapse formation.[12] Her lab also studies how “immune” molecules, such as major histocompatibility complex I molecules and cytokines, regulate the initial establishment of synaptic connections during brain development[13] as well as contribute to synapse loss in Alzheimer's disease. McAllister's team has led efforts to improve reproducibility in rodent models of maternal immune activation (MIA).[14][15] Through the interdisciplinary Conte Center[16] that she co-directs, her group has identified biomarkers in female mice before pregnancy and following MIA during gestation that predict susceptibility and resilience to schizophrenia- and autism-related behavioral and neurochemical alterations in offspring.[17]

Service[edit]

McAllister currently[when?] serves as a member of the finance committee for the Society for Neuroscience.[18]

Teaching[edit]

McAllister has trained 10 pre-doctoral and 13 post-doctoral fellows and more than 60 undergraduates and 13 post-bacs. She has taught courses for both undergraduates and graduate students and is the founding director of the UC Davis Learning, Memory, and Plasticity (LaMP) Training Program.[19]

Awards and honors[edit]

  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship[20] (2001–2003)
  • John Merck Scholars Award[21] (2003–2007)
  • NARSAD Independent Investigator Award[22] (2005–2007)
  • Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award[23] (2006)
  • UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow Award[24] (2007)
  • UC Davis RISE (Research Investments in Science and Engineering) Award[25] (2012)
  • UC Davis Foundation Faculty and Staff Stewardship Award[26] (2022)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Marrush, Najwa (2017-05-31). "UC Davis Center for Neuroscience - A. Kimberley McAllister, Ph.D." neuroscience.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  2. ^ Marrush, Najwa (2017-06-02). "Director's Message | UC Davis Center for Neuroscience". neuroscience.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  3. ^ "Our Neuroscience Researchers". health.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  4. ^ "Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior". 29 August 2022.
  5. ^ "People | Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics". neurotherapeutics.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  6. ^ "John Trott: A Natural Guide" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Neurotrophins Regulate Dendritic Growth in Developing Visual Codex" (PDF).
  8. ^ "Opposing Roles for Endogenous BDNF and NT-3 in Regulating Cortical Dendritic Growth: Neuron".
  9. ^ "Neuronal transfection in brain slices using particle-mediated gene transfer: Neuron" (PDF).
  10. ^ McAllister, A.Kimberley (2004), Heiser, William C. (ed.), "Biolistic Transfection of Cultured Organotypic Brain Slices", Gene Delivery to Mammalian Cells: Volume 1: Nonviral Gene Transfer Techniques, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 245, Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, pp. 197–205, doi:10.1385/1-59259-649-5:197, ISBN 978-1-59259-649-2, PMID 14707380, retrieved 2023-12-19
  11. ^ "1998 – The Grass Foundation". Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  12. ^ Washbourne, Philip; Bennett, Jennie E.; McAllister, A. Kimberley (2002). "Rapid recruitment of NMDA receptor transport packets to nascent synapses". Nature Neuroscience. 5 (8): 751–759. doi:10.1038/nn883. PMID 12089529. S2CID 16790338.
  13. ^ Needleman, Leigh A.; Liu, Xiao-Bo; El-Sabeawy, Faten; Jones, Edward G.; McAllister, A. Kimberley (September 13, 2010). "MHC class I molecules are present both pre- and postsynaptically in the visual cortex during postnatal development and in adulthood". PNAS. 107 (39): 16999–17004. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10716999N. doi:10.1073/pnas.1006087107. PMC 2947898. PMID 20837535.
  14. ^ Kentner, Amanda C.; Bilbo, Staci D.; Brown, Alan S.; Hsiao, Elaine Y.; McAllister, A. Kimberley; Meyer, Urs; Pearce, Brad D.; Pletnikov, Mikhail V.; Yolken, Robert H.; Bauman, Melissa D. (January 2019). "Maternal immune activation: reporting guidelines to improve the rigor, reproducibility, and transparency of the model". Neuropsychopharmacology. 44 (2): 245–258. doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0185-7. ISSN 0893-133X. PMC 6300528. PMID 30188509.
  15. ^ Prendergast, Kathryn; McAllister, A. Kimberley (2022-08-17). "Generating a reproducible model of mid-gestational maternal immune activation utilizing the viral mimic poly(I:C) to study susceptibility and resilience in offspring". Journal of Visualized Experiments (186): 10.3791/64095. doi:10.3791/64095. ISSN 1940-087X. PMC 9933952. PMID 36063000.
  16. ^ "UC Davis Conte Center". conte.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  17. ^ Estes, Myka L.; McAllister, A. Kimberley (2016). "Maternal immune activation: Implications for neuropsychiatric disorders". Science. 353 (6301): 772–777. Bibcode:2016Sci...353..772E. doi:10.1126/science.aag3194. PMC 5650490. PMID 27540164.
  18. ^ "Finance Committee". www.sfn.org. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  19. ^ "UC Davis Training Program in Learning, Memory, and Plasticity". 14 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Fellows Database". sloan.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  21. ^ "Grants Database". The John Merck Fund. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  22. ^ "Grantee Search". Grantee Search | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  23. ^ "Young Investigator Award". www.sfn.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  24. ^ "UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow Award". 20 February 2013.
  25. ^ "Research Investments in the Sciences and Engineering (RISE)". Office of Research. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  26. ^ "Faculty & Staff Stewardship Awards Program". UC Davis Giving. 2020-09-01. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
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