Rebeca M. Mejias-Estevez
Postdoctoral Researcher
Biography
I completed my Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Seville, Spain, in 2006. I carried out my postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. During this period my studies focused on the molecular mechanisms causing Parkinson´s disease and Autism Spectrum Disorders. I rejoined the University of Seville as a Lecturer in Physiology in 2015. In 2019, I moved to the UK to work at the company Abcam, plc. as a Research Area lead for Neuroscience. I am currently working at David Lea-Smith´s laboratory in a project focused on developing and distributing a library of mutants for the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis Sp. PCC6803.
Selected publications
Mejias R*, Chiu S-L, Han M, Rose R, Gil-Infante A, Huganir RL, Wang T*. Purkinje Cell-specific Grip1/2 Knockout Mice Show Increased Self-Grooming Behaviors and Enhanced mGluR5 Signaling in Cerebellum. (*MR and TW shared corresponding authors). Neurobiol Dis 132:104602, 2019. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996119302773?via%3Dihub
Han M, Mejias R, Chiu SL, Rose R, Adamczyk A, Huganir RL, and Wang T. Mice lacking GRIP1/2 show increased social interactions and enhanced phosphorylation of GluA2-S880. Behav Brain Res 321: 176-184, 2017.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016643281630688X?via%3Dihub
Andres-Mateos E, Brinkmeier H, Burks TN, Mejias R, Steinberger M, Soleimani A, Marx R, Simmers JL, Lin B, Finanger-Hedderick E, Marr TG, Lin BM, Hourdé C, Leinwand LA, Kuhl D, Föller M, Vogelsang S, Hernandez-Diaz I, Vaughan DK, Alvarez de la Rosa D, Lang F, and Cohn RD. Activation of serum/glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1) is important to maintain skeletal muscle homeostasis and prevent atrophy. EMBO Molecular Medicine 5:80-91, 2013.
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1002/emmm.201201443
Andres-Mateos E*, Mejias R*, Soleimani A, Lin BM, Burks TN, Marx R, Lin B, Zellars RC, Zhang Y, Huso DL, Marr TG, Leinwand LA, Merriman DK, and Cohn RD. Impaired skeletal muscle regeneration in the absence of fibrosis during hibernation in 13-lined ground squirrels. (*EAM and RM contributed equally to this work). Plos One 7:e48884, 2012.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048884
Adamczyk A, Mejias R, Takamiya K, Yocum J, Krasnova I, Calderon J, Cadet JL, Huganir RL, Pletnikov M, and Wang T. GluA3-deficiency in mice is associated with increased social and aggressive behavior and elevated dopamine in striatum. Behavioural Brain Research 229: 265-272, 2012.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432812000253?via%3Dihub
Burks TN, Andres-Mateos E, Marx R, Mejias R, Van Erp C, Simmers JL, Walston JD, Ward CW, and Cohn RD. Losartan restores skeletal muscle remodeling and protects against disuse atrophy in sarcopenia. Science Translational Medicine 3:82ra37, 2011.
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/82/82ra37.short
Mejias R, Adamczyk A, Anggono V, Niranjan T, Thomas G, Sharma K, Skinner C, Schwartz CE, Stevenson R, Fallin MD, Kaufmann WE, Pletnikov M, Valle D, Huganir RL, and Wang T. Gain-of-function GRIP1 variants alter GluA2 recycling and surface distribution in patients with Autism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 4920-25, 2011.
https://www.pnas.org/content/108/12/4920.long
Andres-Mateos E*, Mejias R*, Sasaki M, Li X, Lin BM, Biskup S, Zhang L, Banerjee R, Thomas B, Yang L, Liu G, Beal MF, Huso DL, Dawson TM, and Dawson VL. Unexpected Lack of Hypersensitivity in LRRK2 Knock-out Mice to 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP).(*EAM and RM contributed equally to this work). Journal of Neuroscience 29: 15846-15850, 2009.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/50/15846.long