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Amanda Woerman

Assistant Professor

In most neurodegenerative disorders, disease is caused by a single protein misfolding into a beta-sheet rich conformation that is capable of self-templating and spreading throughout the brain. This mechanism was first described in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner for the prion protein (PrP). In prion diseases, such as scrapie, chronic wasting disease, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, cellular PrP (PrPC) misfolds into the scrapie conformation (PrPSc) to cause progressive degeneration. More recently, this phenomenon has been seen with a handful of additional proteins, including α-synuclein, beta-amyloid, SOD-1, tau, and TDP-43.

Current Research
Research in the Woerman Lab is focused on investigating the formation of α-synuclein prions in multiple system atrophy and Parkinson’s disease, as well as tau prion formation in Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, progressive supranuclear palsy, and other frontotemporal dementias. In particular, we are interested in understanding the factors driving the conformation differences in α-synuclein and tau prion strains, and developing diagnostic and therapeutic tools reflective of these strain differences.

Learn more at https://www.woermanlab.com/

Academic Background

BA Ohio Wesleyan University, 2008
PhD George Washington University, 2013
Postdoctoral Fellow University of California, San Francisco, 2013-2016

Woerman AL, Kazmi SA, Patel S, Aoyagi A, Oehler A, Widjaja K, Mordes DA, Olson SH, and Prusiner SB. Familial Parkinson’s point mutation abolishes multiple system atrophy prion replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2018, 115(2):409-414.
Woerman AL, Patel S, Kazmi SA, Oehler A, Freyman Y, Espiritu L, Cotter R, Castaneda JA, Olson SH, and Prusiner SB. Kinetics of human mutant tau prion formation in the brains of 2 transgenic mouse lines. JAMA Neurol. 2017, 74(12):1464-1472.
Woerman AL & Aoyagi A, Patel S, Kazmi SA, Lobach I, Grinberg LT, McKee AC, Seeley WW, Olson SH, and Prusiner SB. Tau prions from Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy patients propagate in cultured cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016, 113(50):E8187-E8196.
Prusiner SB, Woerman AL, Mordes DA, Watts JC, Rampersaud R, Berry DB, Patel S, Oehler A, Lowe JK, Kravitz SN, Geschwind DH, Glidden DV, Halliday G, Middleton LT, Gentleman SM, Grinberg LT, and Giles K. Evidence for a-Synuclein Prions Causing Multiple System Atrophy in Humans with Parkinsonism. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015, 112(38):E5308-E5317.
Woerman AL, Stöhr J, Aoyagi A, Rampersaud R, Krejciova Z, Watts JC, Ohyama T, Patel S, Widjaja K, Oehler A, Sanders DW, Diamond MI, Seeley WW, Middleton L, Gentleman SM, Mordes DA, Südhof TC, Giles K, and Prusiner SB. Propagation of prions causing synucleinopathies in cultured cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015, 112(35):E4949-E4958.
 
Contact Info

Biology
LSL N263
240 Thatcher Road
Amherst, MA 01003-9292

Office: (413) 577-8306
Email: awoerman@umass.edu
Web: 

Woerman Lab: https://www.woermanlab.com/
Biology: https://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/about/directories/faculty/amanda-woerman

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