Vassili E. Koliatsos, MD

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Pathology

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
• Cell Engineering, Institute for

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Neurology

Contact for Research Inquiries

720 Rutland Avenue
Ross Research Building, Room 558
Baltimore, MD 21205

koliat@jhmi.edu

Research Interests

Alzheimers disease, Axonal degeneration, cellular therapies, pharmacological therapies, traumatic brain injury, white matter degeneration

Lab Website

Koliatsos Laboratory - Lab Website

• The Koliatsos lab focuses on molecular, cellular and pharmacological therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries. With broad partnerships with other laboratories at JHMI, the Lab currently pursues experimental treatments for axonopathies as they occur in traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and hearing damage. Emphasis is on targeting stress MAPK signals like mixed lineage kinases and the key enzymatic trigger of Wallerian degeneration, SARM1.

Research Summary

Dr. Koliatsos's research involves the fundamental mechanisms of neural responses to traumatic and degenerative signals as well as mechanisms of neural repair. His current emphasis is on axons and the white matter and especially their breakdown in traumatic brain injury and major neurodegenerative diseases, and protection or regeneration of circuits in the injured brain using stem cells and their products. The main focus in the lab currently is the role of molecular programs of axonal self-destruction, especially SARM1 and stress MAPKs, in the initiation and progression of traumatic and other axonopathies and the discovery of small molecules that can mitigate such pathogeneses.

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AEpnyG0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Koliatsos%20VE

Selected Publications

• Koliatsos VE, Alexandris A: Wallerian degeneration as a therapeutic target in traumatic brain injury. Current Opinion in Neurology, 2019; 32(6):786-795

• Alexandris AS, Lee Y, Lehar M, Alam Z, Samineni P, Ryu J, Koliatsos VE. Traumatic axonopathy in spinal tracts after impact acceleration head injury: ultrastructural observations and evidence of SARM1-dependent axonal degeneration. Exp. Neurol. Jan;359:114252

• Alexandris AS, Ryu J, Rajbhandari L, Harlan R, McKenney J, Wang Y, Aja S, Graham D, Venkatesan A, Koliatsos VE. Protective effects of NAMPT and MAPK inhibitors on the Wallerian degeneration of mammalian axons: mechanisms and synergies. Neurobiol Dis 2022 Sep;171:105808

• Price DL, Koo EH, Sisodia SS, Martin LJ, Koliatsos VE, Muma NA, Walker LC and Cork LC: Neuronal responses to injury and aging: lessons from animal models. Prog. Brain Res. 86:297 308

• Rao V, Koliatsos VE, Ahmed F, Lyketsos C, Kortte K: Neuropsychiatric Disturbances Associated with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Practical Approach to Evaluation & Management, Seminars in Neurology 35(1):64-82

• Ryu J, Horkayne-Szakaly I, Xu L, Pletnikova O, Leri F, Eberhart CG, Troncoso JC and Koliatsos VE: The problem of axonal injury in the brains of veterans with histories of blast exposure. Acta Neuropathol. Commun. 2(1) 153

• Welsbie DS, Ziogas NK, Xu L, Kim B-J, Ge Y, Patel AK, Ryu J, Lehar M, Alexandris AS, Stewart N, Zack DJ, Koliatsos VE. Targeted disruption of dual leucine zipper kinase and leucine zipper kinase protects CNS neurons in diffuse traumatic brain injury. Mol Neurodegener. 2019 Nov 27;14(1):44

• Xu L, Ryu J, Nguyen J, Arena J, Rha E, Vranis P, Hitt D, Marmarou C, Marsh-Armstrong N and Koliatsos VE: Evidence for accelerated tauopathy in the retina of transgenic P301S tau mice exposed to repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. Exp. Neurol. 273:168-176

• Yan J, Xu L, Welsh AM, Hatfield G, Hazel T, Johe K, Koliatsos VE: Extensive Neuronal Differentiation of Human Neural Stem Cell Grafts in Adult Rat Spinal Cord. PLoS Medicine 4(2):318-332

• Ziogas NK and Koliatsos VE. Primary traumatic axonopathy in mice subjected to impact acceleration: a reappraisal of pathology and mechanisms with high-resolution anatomical methods. J Neurosci. 2018 Apr 18;38(16)

Patents

• Transplantation Of Human Neural Cells For Treatment Of Neurodegenerative Conditions, PCT/US2005/04163, WO/2006/055685, 5/26/06
• Sarm1 Inhibition Or Deletion As Experimental Treatment Of Traumatic Brain Injury And Neurodegenerative Disease, US filed 9/2021 JHU Ref C15349
• Combined Mapk And Nampt Inhibition For Treatment Of Neuron Degeneration, Application No.17570809, 07/14/2022 JHU Ref C16718

Honors

• Distinguished Fellow, American Psychiatric Association, 1/1/09
• Diplomate, Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, United Council of Neurological Subspecialties, 1/1/07
• Stulman Scholar in Clinical Neuropsychiatry, Leonard and Helen Stulman Foundation, 1/1/06
• Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1/1/99
• Ginsburg Fellow, Groups for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 7/1/95
• Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 7/1/93
• Leadership and Excellence in Alzheimer's Disease (LEAD) Award, National Institute on Aging, 7/1/91
• NATO scholar, NATO, 9/1/85

Graduate Program Affiliations

• Graduate Program in Neuroscience

  Graduate Program in Pathobiology

Memberships

• Society for Neuroscience
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Academy of Neurology
• American Neuropsychiatric Association
• Society for Neurotrauma

Additional Training

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, 1987, Neurology Fellowship; University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece, 1987, Psychiatry Fellowship; Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Towson, MD, 1997, Psychiatry; Franklin Square Hospital, Baltimore, MD, 1994, Internal Medicine; Crete Naval Hospital, Crete, Greece, 1983, Internal Medicine/Neurology