The Scientist’s Rising Stars: Dr. Todd Cohen!
January 13, 2020
Dr. Cohen was recognized as a Rising Star from The Scientist!
In the November 2019 issue of The Scientist on pages 16 – 17, Full PDF Here
Category: featured
Dr. Cohen on Radio in Vivo!
April 15, 2018
Dr. Cohen has been in the news a lot lately! Here’s him on another radio show, called Radio in Vivo! A great way to learn about Dr. Cohen’s inspiration and drive to enter Alzheimer’s disease research. Click the picture or here to check it out.
Dr. Todd Cohen in a Podcast!
March 16, 2018
Dr. Todd Cohen was featured in “The News and Notes Podcast” by Jeffrey C. McAndrew, where they discussed new, promising discoveries in ALS and what a typical day is like in the Cohen Lab at UNC Chapel Hill.
Press play to listen in on the conversation!
Or click here for the full podcast webpage
Inspiring Stories in Inclusion Body Myositis (sIBM)
March 16, 2018
Dr. Todd Cohen and the efforts of the Cohen Lab were mentioned in the Oshkosh Herald! The story below features the efforts of Gary Beyer, a patient with sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (sIBM), a muscle weakening disease that is similar in molecular origin to Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
The article also mentions a Podcast Conversation with Dr. Todd Cohen on similar subjects
To read the full story, click the pdf link below!
Click here to download- Oshkosh Newsletter page 3
Hanna Awarded an NSF Fellowship! UNC Biochemistry and Biophysics Spotlight
December 20, 2017
Two biochemistry and biophysics grad students awarded NSF Fellowships
Congratulations to Candice Crilly and Hanna Trzeciakiewicz for receiving Predoctoral Fellowships from the National Science Foundation!
click to enlarge(left to right) Hanna Trzeciakiewicz and Candice CrillyThe National Science Foundation predoctoral fellowships are designed to help ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.
How to Battle Protein Clumping in ALS- A UNC Science Short
November 22, 2017
Check us out on YouTube!
Tau in Alzheimer’s Disease
June 22, 2017
Tau-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease
Tau acetylation causes increased tau aggregation in vitro and promotes the formation of tau tangles observed in AD brain (Cohen et al., Nat Commun, 2011).
Our Research Mission
June 22, 2017
Our Research Mission in Todd Cohen’s Lab at UNC Chapel Hill
One-liner: To identify the pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease.
More specifically:
Although distinct, many of these diseases share common underlying pathogenic mechanisms. We seek to uncover the molecular pathways that promote protein aggregation and the formation of amyloid deposits that cause neurodegeneration and cognitive impairments.
Using a combination of biochemistry, genetics, and cell biology, we have identified several post-translational mechanisms including lysine acetylation, phosphorylation, and cysteine disulfide modifications that critically regulate many disease-associated proteins in the brain including the tau protein in AD and the TDP-43 protein present in ALS and FTLD patients. We have pioneered the concept that lysine acetylation, in particular, is an unanticipated, yet critical modification that promotes the evolution and maturation of pathological aggregates in a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases.
This raises the intriguing possibility of modification-targeted therapeutics to combat normal ageing mechanisms and a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases. Ultimately, by uncovering the mechanistic details that regulate normal and aberrant protein functions in the diseased brain, can we begin to uncover the molecular platform for future drug-based therapies against these debilitating diseases.
Approach:
We utilize a multidisciplinary approach from the “bottom-up”, starting at the protein level and progressing towards more relevant models to answer fundamental questions about protein function and aggregation in neurodegenerative disease.
Relevance:
Although clinically and pathologically distinct, the disorders shown below share a common underlying pathogenic mechanism in which normally soluble proteins become abnormally sequestered into protein aggregates that can exert toxic loss and gain of functions in a tissue-specific manner.
Current research projects:
1) Tau-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease
Tau acetylation causes increased tau aggregation in vitro and promotes the formation of tau tangles observed in AD brain (Cohen et al., Nat Commun, 2011).
Celebrating Publications!
June 9, 2017
The Cohen Lab recently celebrated the submission of two new publications:
A Dual Pathogenic Mechanism Links Tau Acetylation to Sporadic Tauopathy in Scientific Reports
Trzeciakiewicz H, Tseng JH, Wander CM, Madden V, Tripathy A, Yuan CX, Cohen TJ.
And
Acetylation-induced TDP-43 pathology is suppressed by an HSF1-dependent chaperone program in Nature Communications (Come back soon or contact us for a link!)
Ping Wang, Connor Wander, Chao-Xing Yuan, Michael Bereman, and Todd Cohen
With many more to come!
Celebrating publications is a tradition in the scientific community. In Todd Cohen’s words, “Research isn’t all that gratifying. You work for years in the lab about something nobody knows about and finally submit a paper… months later it hopefully gets accepted. You have to take the opportunity to celebrate”. (Or he said something similar).
There are no upcoming events at this time.
Welcome to The Todd Cohen Lab at UNC Chapel Hill Website
June 1, 2016
Welcome to the new website for Todd Cohen’s Lab at UNC Chapel Hill! We will be incrementally moving our online presence to this web address. You can find our old googlesites website here.
This is the digital home for Todd Cohen’s lab in the Department of Neurology at UNC Chapel Hill, not to be confused with Jessica Cohen’s Lab from Psychology and Neuroscience!
Learn more about the research being done in the Todd Cohen Lab at UNC Chapel Hill here.
This website will provide us with a unique platform for discussion and public interaction. The forum section of the website is under construction, but check back soon! Any burning questions for Todd Cohen’s Lab at UNC can be asked here.
Stay tuned for more updates! Any feedback is appreciated as well! Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.