Wenbo Zhang
Rakez Kayed, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Neurology

Contact Information:
Phone: (409) 772-0138
Fax: (409) 747-0015
Email: rakayed@utmb.edu

Education:
B.S: Chemistry, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
PhD: Organic/Medicinal Chemistry, University of Tübingen, Germany
Post Doctoral: Alzheimer’s and Protein misfolding Diseases, University of California, Irvine, CA

Research Interests:

  • Neurodegenerative disease pathology and mechanisms (Alzheimer's (AD), Parkinson's (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and other tauopathies)
  • Mechanisms of protein folding and aggregation
  • Molecular mechanisms behind tau oligomer toxicity, propagation, and role in neurodegeneration
  • Immunotherapeutic approaches targeting amyloid and tau oligomers
  • Diagnostics and biomarkers using CSF and other biological samples
  • Amyloid oligomers in amyloidosis, cancer, and diabetes
  • Tau aggregation in traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Selected Publications:

  1. Bittar A, Bhatt N, Hasan T, McAllen S, Ellsworth A, Carreterro M, Taglilatela T, Lucke-Wold B, Logsdon A, Rosen C, Turner RC, Kayed R. Tau oligomers after single and repetitive mTBI: Are they different. Brain Communications 2019 June 28 – https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcz004.
  2. Castillo-Carranza DL, Guerrero-Munoz MJ, Gerson J, Sengupta U, Kayed R. α-Synuclein oligomers induce a unique toxic tau strain. Biological Psychiatry. 2018 Jan 17.  2018 Oct 1;84(7):499-508.PMID: 29478699. Chosen for cover.
  3. Gerson JE, Farmer K, Henson N, Castillo-Carranza DL, Carretero-Murillo M, Sengupta U, Barrett A, Kayed R. Tau oligomers mediate α-synuclein toxicity and can be targeted by immunotherapy. 2018 Feb, Molecular Neurodegeneration. 2018 Mar 15;13(1):13. PMID: 29544548. PMCID: PMC5856311
  4. Lo Cascio F, Kayed R. Azura C binds and modulates tau oligomers toxicity in vitro. ACS Chem Neurosci. 2018 Mar 1. PMID: 29378132
  5. Sengupta U, Portelius E, Hanson O, Farmer K, Woltjer R, Zetterberg H, Woltjer R, Galasko D, Blennow K, Kayed R. Cerebrospinal fluid tau oligomers as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 2017 Mar 1;4(4):226-235. PMID: 28382304.
  6. Castillo-Carranza DL, Guerrero-Munoz MJ, Sengupta U, Hernandez CM, Barrett AT, Dineley K, Kayed R. Tau immunotherapy modulates both tau and upstream amyloid pathology in an AD mouse model.  Journal of Neuroscience. 2015 Mar 25; 35(12):4857-68.
  7. Castillo-Carranza DL, Gerson JE, Sengupta U, Guerrero-Muñoz MJ, Lasagna-Reeves CA, Kayed R. Passive immunization with tau oligomer monoclonal antibody reverses tauopathy phenotypes without affecting hyperphosphorylated neurofibrillary. Journal of Neuroscience. 2014, 34(12):4260-72.
  8. Lasagna-Reeves, CA, Castillo-Carranza DL, Sengupta U, Guerrero-Munoz MJ, Kiritoshi T, Neugebauer V, Jackson GR, Kayed R. Alzheimer brain-derived tau oligomers propagate pathology from endogenous tau. Sci Rep. - a nature publication. 2012, 2:700.
  9. Lasagna-Reeves CA, Castillo-Carranza DL, Sengupta U, Sarmiento J, Troncoso J, Jackson GR, Kayed R. Identification of oligomers at early stages of tau aggregation in Alzheimer's disease. FASEB J. 2012, 26 (5):1946-59.
  10. Kayed R, Head E, Thompson JL, McIntire TM, Milton SC, Cotman CW, Glabe CG. Common structure of soluble amyloid oligomers implies common mechanism of pathogenesis. Science. 2003, 300 (5618):486-9.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kayed+R


http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=InrMy20AAAAJ&hl=en