Education

B.S., 2010, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ph.D., 2017, University of Maryland, College Park

Honors and Awards

2022-2024, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Fellow

2022, Rainwater 30th Anniversary Tau Leadership Award

Research Interests

My research focuses on how proteins become damaged, misfolded, and accumulate in the brain during neurodegenerative disease. I am especially interested in tau, a protein that forms abnormal aggregates in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. My lab studies why these aggregates form, how they spread through the brain, and why cells are sometimes unable to remove them.

A major goal of my research is to develop new ways to selectively eliminate disease-associated proteins after they have already begun to accumulate. To do this, we combine molecular and cell biology, protein biochemistry, human neural cells and brain organoids, animal models, and engineered drug-delivery systems. We are also interested in how the brain responds to injury and other forms of cellular stress that may promote protein aggregation.

More broadly, my lab works at the intersection of neurodegeneration, protein homeostasis, and therapeutic development. We draw on a broad range of approaches, including tau biology, protein degradation, cell culture, stem-cell-derived neural models, brain organoids, mouse models of neurodegenerative disease, microscopy, biochemical assays, and the development of new strategies for delivering therapeutics to the brain.

Selected Publications

(1) Protein-like Polymer for Inhibition of Tau Fibril Propagation in Human-Derived Models of Neurodegeneration.Longhini, A.P., Fattah, M.A., Sala-Jarque, J., Dubose, A., Rivera, E.K., Sclafani, O.R., Zhou, J., Anatot, J.E., Thompson, M.P., Unger, M.T., Beckett, E.R., Fagan, C., Nakamura, D., Morimoto, R., Han, S., Qiao, B., Gianneschi, N.C., Kosik, K.S. (2025), BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.02.636155

(2) Precision Proteoform Design for 4R Tau Isoform Selective Templated Aggregation. Longhini, A.P., DuBose, A., Lobo, S., Vijayan B., Bai, Y., Rivera, E.K., Sala-Jarque, J., Nikitina, A., Carrettiero, D.C., Unger, M., Sclafani, O., Fu, V., Vigers, M., Buee, L., Landrieu, I., Shell, S., Shea, J.E., Han, S., Kosik, K.S. (2024) Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 15, pp. e2320456121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2320456121