Benjamin Wolozin

Background

Benjamin Wolozin completed his undergraduate education at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program. His postdoctoral fellowships were spent at Mt. Sinai Medical Center (1988-9) and the National Institute of Mental Health (1989–96). He joined Loyola University Medical Center in 1996 as an Associate Professor and rose to the rank of tenured full professor. He joined the Boston University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology in 2004 as a Professor and is currently obtaining an adjunct position in the Dept. of Neurology.

Research Interests

Dr. Wolozin’s interests focus on the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. His work on Alzheimer’s disease examines the role of cholesterol in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, and stems from his discovery in 2000 that subjects taking the cholesterol lowering medicines, termed statins, have a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. His work on Parkinson’s disease examines the interaction between genes implicated in the disease, such as parkin and a -synuclein, and environmental factors implicated in the disease. He uses a wide range of approaches to study neurodegenerative disease ranging from molecular approaches to epidemiology. These approaches include molecular biology, cellular biology, transgenic mice, transgenic C. elegans, study of human brain samples and epidemiological database analyses.

ADC Role

At present, Dr. Wolozin serves as the primary investigator for several funded studies including, Regulation of Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing by Presenilins, Regulation of Ubiquitination and Receptor Signaling by Parkin , Mechanisms of a-synuclein aggregation and toxicity and Epidemiological Screen for Medicines that Modify the Course of Alzheimer’s disease .

Awards/Memberships

Dr. Wolozin has received numerous awards for his research including the Donald B. Lindsley Prize, Society for Neuroscience, the A. E. Bennett Award and a Merit Award from Alzforum . He serves on numerous editorial boards, including for the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Neurodegenerative Diseases, and is a standing member of the NIH CDIN study section.

Recent Publications

For a full list of publications click here.

• Kuwahara T, Inoue K, D’Agati VD, Fujimoto T, Eguchi T, Saha S, Wolozin B, Iwatsubo T, Abeliovich A. LRRK2 and RAB7L1 coordinately regulate axonal morphology and lysosome integrity in diverse cellular contexts. Sci Rep. 2016; 6:29945. PMID: 27424887.
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• Ostrowski SM, Johnson K, Siefert M, Shank S, Sironi L, Wolozin B, Landreth GE, Ziady AG. Simvastatin inhibits protein isoprenylation in the brain. Neuroscience. 2016 Aug 4; 329:264-74. PMID: 27180285.
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• Vanderweyde T, Apicco DJ, Youmans-Kidder K, Ash PE, Cook C, Lummertz da Rocha E, Jansen-West K, Frame AA, Citro A, Leszyk JD, Ivanov P, Abisambra JF, Steffen M, Li H, Petrucelli L, Wolozin B. Interaction of tau with the RNA-Binding Protein TIA1 Regulates tau Pathophysiology and Toxicity. Cell Rep. 2016 May 17; 15(7):1455-66. PMID: 27160897.
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• Meier S, Bell M, Lyons DN, Rodriguez-Rivera J, Ingram A, Fontaine SN, Mechas E, Chen J, Wolozin B, LeVine H, Zhu H, Abisambra JF. Pathological Tau Promotes Neuronal Damage by Impairing Ribosomal Function and Decreasing Protein Synthesis. J Neurosci. 2016 Jan 20; 36(3):1001-7. PMID: 26791227.
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• Zhou Q, Yen A, Rymarczyk G, Asai H, Trengrove C, Aziz N, Kirber MT, Mostoslavsky G, Ikezu T, Wolozin B, Bolotina VM. Impairment of PARK14-dependent Ca(2+) signalling is a novel determinant of Parkinson’s disease. Nat Commun. 2016; 7:10332. PMID: 26755131.
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• Wolozin B, Ikezu T. Syk and Yea Shall Find. EBioMedicine. 2015 Nov; 2(11):1590-1. PMID: 26870779.
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• Asai H, Ikezu S, Tsunoda S, Medalla M, Luebke J, Haydar T, Wolozin B, Butovsky O, Kügler S, Ikezu T. Depletion of microglia and inhibition of exosome synthesis halt tau propagation. Nat Neurosci. 2015 Nov; 18(11):1584-93. PMID: 26436904.
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• Saha S, Ash PE, Gowda V, Liu L, Shirihai O, Wolozin B. Mutations in LRRK2 potentiate age-related impairment of autophagic flux. Mol Neurodegener. 2015; 10:26. PMID: 26159606.
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• Wolozin B, Apicco D. RNA binding proteins and the genesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2015; 822:11-5. PMID: 25416971.
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