Research Funding

  • September 1, 2026 - May 31, 2031 - Glial regulation of neuronal lysosome function and protein aggregation , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AG096729
  • September 17, 2025 - June 30, 2029 - P30 - Core Grant for Vision Research , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30EY037668
  • January 1, 2021 - November 30, 2025 - Mechanistic analysis and allellic genome editing of iPSC-derived dominant LCA model , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EY032197
  • December 1, 1977 - September 29, 2025 - P30 - Core Grant for Vision Research , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30EY002162
  • February 15, 2022 - January 31, 2025 - Novel patient-derived 3D platform for detecting TDP-43 proteinopathy and associated biomarkers for ALS/FTD , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R44NS124457
  • April 1, 2019 - March 31, 2021 - Developing astrocyte, neuron, and microglial 3D organoids to model key aspects of human pathology , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R03AG063157
  • December 20, 2012 - November 30, 2015 - Investigating Astrocyte Diversity and Function in Midbrain Dopaminergic Circuits , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01MH099595
  • September 30, 2009 - June 30, 2014 - THE ROLE OF ASTROCYTES IN PLASTICITY AND DISEASE. , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: DP2OD006507
  • April 1, 2008 - March 31, 2011 - Role of Micro-RNAs in Neuronal Circuit Formation and Function , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21MH083090
  • June 1, 1999 - January 1, 1900 - PRESYNAPTIC GLIAL ENHANCEMENT OF SYNAPTIC EFFICACY , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: F32NS010784

Education

University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill, BA, 1991, Biological Science
University California San Francisco, CA, Ph.D., 1997, Neuroscience
Stanford University, Postdoc, 2004, Neurobiology

Honors & Awards

  • 2001
    Epilepsy training grant award
  • 2002
    Zaffaroni research fellowship in addiction research
  • 2004
    Sandler Award
  • 2005
    Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship
  • 2006
    March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Award
  • 2006
    Research to Prevent Blindness- New Investigator Award
  • 2009
    NIH New Innovator Award
  • 2014
    Walt and Lilly Disney Award for Amblyopia Research, RPB
  • 2015
    Allen Distnguished Investigator Award, Paul G Allen Foundation

Selected Publications

  1. Uenaka T, Jung S, Kumar I, Vodehnal K, Rastogi M, Yoo Y, Koontz M, Thome C, Li W, Chan T, Green EM, Chesnov K, Sun Z, Zhang S, Wang J, Venida A, Mellier AM, Atkins M, Jackrel M, Skotheim JM, Wyss-Coray T, Abu-Remaileh M, Lashuel HA, Bassik MC, Südhof TC, Del Sol A, Ullian E, Wernig M. Defined human tri-lineage brain microtissues. View on PubMed
  2. Bekier ME, Pinarbasi E, Krishnan G, Mesojedec JJ, Hurley M, Harikumar Sheela H, Collins CA, Ghaffari L, de Majo M, Ullian EM, Koontz M, Coleman S, Li X, Tank EM, Waksmacki J, Gao FB, Barmada SJ. Nemo-like kinase disrupts nuclear import and drives TDP43 mislocalization in ALS. View on PubMed
  3. Jiang R, Chouchane M, Chen KS, Moey C, Bunt J, Li J, Alkuraya F, Alobeid E, Richards L, Ullian E, Sherr E. C12ORF57: a novel principal regulator of synaptic AMPA currents and excitatory neuronal homeostasis. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 14. View on PubMed
  4. Bekier ME, Pinarbasi E, Mesojedec JJ, Ghaffari L, de Majo M, Ullian E, Koontz M, Coleman S, Li X, Tank EMH, Waksmacki J, Barmada S. Nemo-like kinase disrupts nuclear import and drives TDP43 mislocalization in ALS. bioRxiv. 2025 Jan 28. View on PubMed
  5. Li E, Benitez C, Boggess SC, Koontz M, Rose IVL, Martinez D, Dräger N, Teter OM, Samelson AJ, Pierce N, Ullian EM, Kampmann M. CRISPRi-based screens in iAssembloids to elucidate neuron-glia interactions. Neuron. 2025 Mar 05; 113(5):701-718.e8. View on PubMed
  6. Li E, Benitez C, Boggess SC, Koontz M, Rose IVL, Martinez D, Draeger N, Teter OM, Samelson AJ, Pierce N, Ullian EM, Kampmann M. CRISPRi-based screens in iAssembloids to elucidate neuron-glia interactions. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 24. View on PubMed
  7. Minhas PS, Jones JR, Latif-Hernandez A, Sugiura Y, Durairaj AS, Wang Q, Mhatre SD, Uenaka T, Crapser J, Conley T, Ennerfelt H, Jung YJ, Liu L, Prasad P, Jenkins BC, Ay YA, Matrongolo M, Goodman R, Newmeyer T, Heard K, Kang A, Wilson EN, Yang T, Ullian EM, Serrano GE, Beach TG, Wernig M, Rabinowitz JD, Suematsu M, Longo FM, McReynolds MR, Gage FH, Andreasson KI. Restoring hippocampal glucose metabolism rescues cognition across Alzheimer's disease pathologies. Science. 2024 08 23; 385(6711):eabm6131. View on PubMed
  8. Minhas PS, Jones JR, Latif-Hernandez A, Sugiura Y, Durairaj AS, Uenaka T, Wang Q, Mhatre SD, Liu L, Conley T, Ennerfelt H, Jung YJ, Prasad P, Jenkins BC, Goodman R, Newmeyer T, Heard K, Kang A, Wilson EN, Ullian EM, Serrano GE, Beach TG, Rabinowitz JD, Wernig M, Suematsu M, Longo FM, McReynolds MR, Gage FH, Andreasson KI. Restoring hippocampal glucose metabolism rescues cognition across Alzheimer's disease pathologies. bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 28. View on PubMed
  9. Marsan E, Velmeshev D, Ramsey A, Patel RK, Zhang J, Koontz M, Andrews MG, de Majo M, Mora C, Blumenfeld J, Li AN, Spina S, Grinberg LT, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Ullian EM, Krummel MF, Kriegstein AR, Huang EJ. Astroglial toxicity promotes synaptic degeneration in the thalamocortical circuit in frontotemporal dementia with GRN mutations. J Clin Invest. 2023 03 15; 133(6). View on PubMed
  10. de Majo M, Koontz M, Marsan E, Salinas N, Ramsey A, Kuo YM, Seo K, Li H, Dräger N, Leng K, Gonzales SL, Kurnellas M, Miyaoka Y, Klim JR, Kampmann M, Ward ME, Huang EJ, Ullian EM. Granulin loss of function in human mature brain organoids implicates astrocytes in TDP-43 pathology. Stem Cell Reports. 2023 03 14; 18(3):706-719. View on PubMed
  11. Whalen S, Inoue F, Ryu H, Fair T, Markenscoff-Papadimitriou E, Keough K, Kircher M, Martin B, Alvarado B, Elor O, Laboy Cintron D, Williams A, Hassan Samee MA, Thomas S, Krencik R, Ullian EM, Kriegstein A, Rubenstein JL, Shendure J, Pollen AA, Ahituv N, Pollard KS. Machine learning dissection of human accelerated regions in primate neurodevelopment. Neuron. 2023 03 15; 111(6):857-873.e8. View on PubMed
  12. Kyounghee Seo, S John Liu, Vikas Daggubati, Joanna J Phillips, Jennifer Clarke, Michael Prados, Aparna Bhaduri, Daniel Lim, Erik Ullian, David Raleigh. TMIC-43. HEDGEHOG LIGANDS FROM GLIOBLASTOMA CELLS INDUCE ASTROCYTES INHIBITION OF CANCER STEM CELLS. Neuro-Oncology. 2022 Nov 14; 24(Supplement_7):vii280-vii281. View on PubMed
  13. Leng K, Rose IVL, Kim H, Xia W, Romero-Fernandez W, Rooney B, Koontz M, Li E, Ao Y, Wang S, Krawczyk M, Tcw J, Goate A, Zhang Y, Ullian EM, Sofroniew MV, Fancy SPJ, Schrag MS, Lippmann ES, Kampmann M. CRISPRi screens in human iPSC-derived astrocytes elucidate regulators of distinct inflammatory reactive states. Nat Neurosci. 2022 11; 25(11):1528-1542. View on PubMed
  14. Andrews MG, Mukhtar T, Eze UC, Simoneau CR, Ross J, Parikshak N, Wang S, Zhou L, Koontz M, Velmeshev D, Siebert CV, Gemenes KM, Tabata T, Perez Y, Wang L, Mostajo-Radji MA, de Majo M, Donohue KC, Shin D, Salma J, Pollen AA, Nowakowski TJ, Ullian E, Kumar GR, Winkler EA, Crouch EE, Ott M, Kriegstein AR. Tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for human cortical astrocytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 07 26; 119(30):e2122236119. View on PubMed
  15. Tsai NY, Wang F, Toma K, Yin C, Takatoh J, Pai EL, Wu K, Matcham AC, Yin L, Dang EJ, Marciano DK, Rubenstein JL, Wang F, Ullian EM, Duan X. Trans-Seq maps a selective mammalian retinotectal synapse instructed by Nephronectin. Nat Neurosci. 2022 05; 25(5):659-674. View on PubMed
  16. Magill ST, Vasudevan HN, Seo K, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Choudhury A, John Liu S, Pekmezci M, Findakly S, Hilz S, Lastella S, Demaree B, Braunstein SE, Bush NAO, Aghi MK, Theodosopoulos PV, Sneed PK, Abate AR, Berger MS, McDermott MW, Lim DA, Ullian EM, Costello JF, Raleigh DR. Multiplatform genomic profiling and magnetic resonance imaging identify mechanisms underlying intratumor heterogeneity in meningioma. Nat Commun. 2020 09 23; 11(1):4803. View on PubMed
  17. Zhang J, Velmeshev D, Hashimoto K, Huang YH, Hofmann JW, Shi X, Chen J, Leidal AM, Dishart JG, Cahill MK, Kelley KW, Liddelow SA, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Walther TC, Farese RV, Taylor JP, Ullian EM, Huang B, Debnath J, Wittmann T, Kriegstein AR, Huang EJ. Neurotoxic microglia promote TDP-43 proteinopathy in progranulin deficiency. Nature. 2020 12; 588(7838):459-465. View on PubMed
  18. Liu SJ, Malatesta M, Lien BV, Saha P, Thombare SS, Hong SJ, Pedraza L, Koontz M, Seo K, Horlbeck MA, He D, Birk HS, Jain M, Olsen HE, Akeson M, Weissman JS, Monje M, Gupta N, Raleigh DR, Ullian EM, Lim DA. CRISPRi-based radiation modifier screen identifies long non-coding RNA therapeutic targets in glioma. Genome Biol. 2020 03 31; 21(1):83. View on PubMed
  19. Bayraktar OA, Bartels T, Holmqvist S, Kleshchevnikov V, Martirosyan A, Polioudakis D, Ben Haim L, Young AMH, Batiuk MY, Prakash K, Brown A, Roberts K, Paredes MF, Kawaguchi R, Stockley JH, Sabeur K, Chang SM, Huang E, Hutchinson P, Ullian EM, Hemberg M, Coppola G, Holt MG, Geschwind DH, Rowitch DH. Astrocyte layers in the mammalian cerebral cortex revealed by a single-cell in situ transcriptomic map. Nat Neurosci. 2020 04; 23(4):500-509. View on PubMed
  20. de Majo M, Koontz M, Rowitch D, Ullian EM. An update on human astrocytes and their role in development and disease. Glia. 2020 04; 68(4):685-704. View on PubMed

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