Aya Pusic
Ph.D. Candidate in Neurobiology
Ms. Pusic received her B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics with a minor in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007. Following graduation, she worked as a Staff Research Associate II for Dr. Davide Ruggero at the University of California, San Francisco, investigating the molecular mechanisms by which impairments in accurate control of mRNA translation, cell growth and overall protein synthesis rates lead to B cell lymphoma. Additionally, she had the opportunity to work with a collaborator, Dr. Maria Barna, studying the role of ribosomal proteins in Hox gene regulation during vertebrate embryonic development.
In April 2010 Aya joined the Kraig Lab. The focus of her research is to define the neuroimmune signaling by which T-cells modulate brain excitability. More specifically, she is investigating the mechanisms by which T-cell immune signaling can promote spreading depression when the frequency of events is too high. Likewise, she is studying the mechanisms by which environmental enrichment alters T-cells to reduce spreading depression susceptibility.
Peer-reviewed Publications
Barna A, Pusic A, Zollo O, Costa M, Kondrashov N, Rego E, Rao PH, Ruggero D (2008) Suppression of Myc oncogenic activity by ribosomal protein haploinsufficiency. Nature 456:971-915.
Kondrashov N, Pusic A, Stumpf CR, Shimizu K, Hsieh AC, Xue S, Ishijima J, Shiroishi T, Barna M (2011) Ribosome-mediated specificity in Hox mRNA translation and vertebrate tissue patterning. Cell Apr 29;145(3):383-97.
Pusic AD‡, Grinberg YY‡, Mitchell HM, Kraig RP (2011) Modeling neural immune signaling of episodic and chronic migraine using spreading depression in vitro. J Vis Exp doi: 10.3791/2910.
Cipolla M, Pusic AD, Grinberg YY, Chapman A, Poynter ME, Kraig RP (2012) Pregnant Serum Induces Neuroinflammation and Seizure Activity via TNF-alpha. Experimental Neurology 234: 398-404.
Abstracts
Pusic AD, Kraig RP (2010) Inflammatory gene micro array profiling demonstrates “T-cell-like” activation after recurrent spreading depression – implications for migraine pathogenesis. Soc Neurosci 36: Prog #346.2.
Pusic AD, Mitchell HM, Kraig RP (2011) IFN-γ from T-cells modulates susceptibility to- and transient myelination from – spreading depression: implications for migraine therapy. Soc Neurosci 37: Prog #875.16.
Mitchell HM, Pusic AD, Kraig RP (2011) Interleukin-11 mitigates spreading depression susceptibility: implications for migraine. Soc Neurosci 37: Prog #875.22.
