Nadja Spitzer
Marshall University, WV·Neuroscience
Silver at the nanometer scale kills bacteria, so manufacturers add it to athletic clothing, plastics, cosmetics and wound dressings. Those particles end up in surface water, wastewater and farmland, and they move up food chains, so animals and people are chronically exposed to low levels.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
silver nanoparticles
nanosilver
nanotoxicology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Determine whether low-level silver nanoparticle exposure changes the location or activation of CRMP-2, a protein that stabilizes microtubules during neurite growth, and of its regulator GSK3β in cultured neural cells.
- Measure how exposure during development alters neuronal shape in Caenorhabditis elegans, using strains with fluorescent fusion proteins to follow UNC-33, the worm version of CRMP-2.
- Assess pre- and postsynaptic structural changes in neurons of worms exposed to nanosilver during development, since cytoskeletal control of cell shape underlies synaptic function.
- Quantify neural function after developmental nanosilver exposure using whole-animal behavioral assays and optogenetics, which activates individual neurons with light.
- Test whether silver nanoparticle exposure promotes formation of phosphorylated tau aggregates, a hallmark of neurodegeneration, in the C. elegans model.
More about the research
Nanosilver passes readily through the lining of the gut and lungs, reaches organs including the brain, and can persist there for months, meaning repeated exposure may let it accumulate. Unlike the liver, each brain region does its own job and cannot easily compensate for local damage. The question driving this project is what resident silver nanoparticles do to brain cells at doses too low to kill them.
Why it matters
Nanosilver from consumer and medical products reaches the environment and accumulates in the brain, yet the consequences of long-term low-level exposure are unclear. Identifying the molecular targets involved would tell regulators and product designers which effects to watch for, and could clarify whether chronic exposure contributes to problems in learning-related plasticity or to neurodegeneration. The project also trains undergraduates at a primarily undergraduate institution with many first-generation students.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mark Alkema
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Neuroscience
Identify the neuronal targets and molecular pathways through which nitric oxide made by gut bacteria suppresses seizures in C. elegans unc-2/CaV2α gain-of-function mutants, a worm model of a migraine-linked calcium channel disorder.
Jagan Srinivasan
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA·Neuroscience
Define how NLP-3 neuropeptides drive hermaphrodite avoidance of the pheromone ascaroside-8 in C. elegans, using CRISPR mutants, rescue with synthetic peptides, and quantitative behavioral assays.
Jessica Sowa
West Chester University of Pennsylvania, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Screen wild free-living nematodes, collected by students in the Nematode Hunters program, for infections that spread to C. elegans strains carrying fluorescent infection reporters.
The school
Marshall University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $39M a year on research, 28 research doctorates a year.
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