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Karina J. Vargas Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor - Function of alpha-synuclein in synaptic physiology and neurodegenerative disease
Research Interests

The Vargas Lab researches alpha-synuclein in hopes to find clues that can be used to generate new therapies for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases

Representative Publications
  1. Vargas KJ, Colosi PL, Girardi E, Park JM, Harmon LE, Chandra SS. α-Synuclein colocalizes with AP180 and affects the size of clathrin lattices.. J Biol Chem. 2023 Jul 27;():105091. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.105091. PubMed PMID: 37516240;
  2. Soll LG, Eisen JN, Vargas KJ, Medeiros AT, Hammar KM, Morgan JR. α-Synuclein-112 Impairs Synaptic Vesicle Recycling Consistent With Its Enhanced Membrane Binding Properties.. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020;8():405. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00405. PubMed PMID: 32548120;
  3. Vargas KJ. Kinetic Measurements of Endocytosis and Exocytosis in Cultured Neurons.. Methods Mol Biol. 2019;1948():23-33. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9124-2_3. PubMed PMID: 30771167;
  4. Vargas KJ, Schrod N, Davis T, Fernandez-Busnadiego R, Taguchi YV, Laugks U, Lucic V, Chandra SS. Synucleins Have Multiple Effects on Presynaptic Architecture.. Cell Rep. 2017 Jan 3;18(1):161-173. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.12.023. PubMed PMID: 28052246;