Andrew Mendiola, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Andrew Mendiola, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Research Interests
Unchecked brain inflammation contributes to neurological disease progression, however how the brain’s immune system becomes harmful to neurons is largely unknown. Our neuroimmunology research investigates the role that brain innate immune responses play in the initiation and progression of neurological diseases. We integrate systems neuroimmunology and functional genomics with disease models to study how the brain-immune-blood axis regulates epigenetic circuits, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial control of neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. The aim is to understand and manipulate the brain’s immune system with the goal of engineering new methods to protect the brain from harmful inflammation and neurodegeneration.
Selected Publications
Mendiola AS, Yan Z, Dixit K, Johnson JR, Bouhaddou M, Meyer-Franke A, Shin MG, Yong Y, Agrawal A, MacDonald E, Muthukumar G, Pearce C, Arun N, Cabriga B, Meza-Acevedo R, Alzamora MDPS, Zamvil SS, Pico AR, Ryu JK, Krogan NJ, Akassoglou K. Defining blood-induced microglia functions in neurodegeneration through multiomic profiling. Nat Immunol. 2023 Jul;24(7):1173-1187.
Mendiola AS and Akassoglou K. Fibrin induces neurotoxic microglia gene programs in neurodegeneration. Nat Immunol. 2023 Jul;24(7):1062-1063.
Mendiola AS, Church KA, Cardona SM, Vanegas D, Garcia SA, Macklin W, Lira SA, Ransohoff RM, Kokovay E, Lin CA, Cardona AE. Defective fractalkine-CX3CR1 signaling aggravates neuroinflammation and affects recovery from cuprizone-induced demyelination. J Neurochem. 2022 Sep;162(5):430-443.
Mendiola AS, Ryu JK, Bardehle S, Meyer-Franke A, Ang KK, Wilson C, Baeten KM, Hanspers K, Merlini M, Thomas S, Petersen MA, Williams A, Thomas R, Rafalski VA, Meza-Acevedo R, Tognatta R, Yan Z, Pfaff SJ, Machado MR, Bedard C, Rios Coronado PE, Jiang X, Wang J, Pleiss MA, Green AJ, Zamvil SS, Pico AR, Bruneau BG, Arkin MR, Akassoglou K. Transcriptional profiling and therapeutic targeting of oxidative stress in neuroinflammation. Nat Immunol. 2020 May;21(5):513-524.
Ryu JK, Rafalski VA, Meyer-Franke A, Adams RA, Poda SB, Rios Coronado PE, Pedersen LØ, Menon V, Baeten KM, Sikorski SL, Bedard C, Hanspers K, Bardehle S, Mendiola AS, Davalos D, Machado MR, Chan JP, Plastira I, Petersen MA, Pfaff SJ, Ang KK, Hallenbeck KK, Syme C, Hakozaki H, Ellisman MH, Swanson RA, Zamvil SS, Arkin MR, Zorn SH, Pico AR, Mucke L, Freedman SB, Stavenhagen JB, Nelson RB, Akassoglou K. Fibrin-targeting immunotherapy protects against neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Nat Immunol. 2018 Nov;19(11):1212-1223.