NI Seminar Series: Levi Wood, Ph.D.
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Parker H. Petit Science Center, 124, Fulton
"Systems Interrogation of Neural Immune Signaling in Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer’s Disease" Dr. Levi Wood | Associate Professor | Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering | Georgia Tech Abstract: Microglia, astrocytes, and neurons all contribute to immune signaling responses in traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease. My laboratory interrogates signaling mechanisms of brain injury and disease using a combination of targeted phospho-proteomic and cytokine signaling assays and gene expression network analysis in concert with mouse and in vitro model systems. In this talk, I will highlight our recent findings implicating neuronal p38 MAPK immune signaling as a driver of traumatic brain injury and our ongoing work implicating hyperactivated microglial MAPK/ERK signaling in Alzheimer’s disease. I will highlight our recently established tools for interrogating immune signaling from individual cell types using transgenic TurboID-based native state proteomics. These new tools, combined with omics-based profiling, hold the potential to unlock critical immune-based disease mechanisms and novel immune-targeting therapies. Bio: Dr. Levi Wood is an Associate Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow at Georgia Tech. His lab uses large “omics” datasets from humans, mice, and cells to understand and control the brain’s immune system in Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Wood has appointments in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and is active in the Georgia Tech and Emory Neuroscience communities. Dr. Wood is Deputy Director of the BioEngineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at Georgia Tech. He has won institute teaching and junior faculty awards, the Outstanding PhD Advisor award in BioEngineering, and received the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award for his work to conceptualize brain immunity as a controllable dynamic process.