Maryam Keshavarz

Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen | DZNE · RG Molecular and Cellular Cognition (Bonn)

The current understanding of the biology of aging is largely based on research aimed at identifying factors that influence lifespan. However, lifespan as a sole proxy measure of aging has limitations because it can be influenced by specific pathologies (not generalized physiological deterioration in old age). Hence, there is a great need to discuss...

Aging is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disorders. Aging processes have therefore been discussed as potential targets for the development of novel and broadly effective preventatives or therapeutics for age-related diseases, including those affecting the brain. Mechanisms though...

Map2k7 (synonym Mkk7) is a conserved regulatory kinase gene and a central component of the JNK signaling cascade with key functions during cellular differentiation. It shows complex transcription patterns, and different transcript isoforms are known in the mouse (Mus musculus). We have previously identified a newly evolved testis-specific transcrip...

Map2k7 (synonym Mkk7) is a conserved regulatory kinase gene and a central component of the JNK signaling cascade with key functions during cellular differentiation. It shows complex transcription patterns and different transcript isoforms are known in the mouse (Mus musculus). We have previously identified a newly evolved testis specific transcript...

PRKACB (Protein Kinase CAMP-Activated Catalytic Subunit Beta) is predominantly expressed in the brain, and regulation of this gene links to neuroprotective effects against tau and Aβ-induced toxicity. Here we studied a (GCC)-repeat spanning the core promoter and 5′ UTR of this gene in 300 human subjects, consisting of late-onset neurocognitive diso...

Genic copy number differences can have phenotypic consequences, but this has not been much studied in natural populations so far. We have analyzed here the natural variation of two families of tandemly repeated regulatory small nucleolar RNAs (SNORD115 and SNORD116) in the house mouse (Mus musculus). They are encoded within the Prader-Willi Syndrom...

Across human protein-coding genes, PRKACB (Protein Kinase CAMP-Activated Catalytic Subunit Beta) contains one of the longest GCC-repeats, and is predominantly expressed in the brain. Here we studied this STR in 300 human subjects, consisting of late-onset neurocognitive disorder (NCD) (N = 150) and controls (N = 150). We also studied the impact of...

Systematic knockout studies in mice have shown that a large fraction of the gene replacements show no lethal or other overt phenotypes. This has led to the development of more refined analysis schemes, including physiological, behavioral, developmental and cytological tests. However, transcriptomic analyses have not yet been systematically evaluate...

The de novo emergence of new genes has been well documented through genomic analyses. However, a functional analysis, especially of very young protein-coding genes, is still largely lacking. Here, we identify a set of house mouse-specific protein-coding genes and assess their translation by ribosome profiling and mass spectrometry data. We function...

The de novo emergence of new transcripts has been well documented through genomic analyses. However, a functional analysis, especially of very young protein-coding genes, is still largely lacking. Here we focus on three loci that have evolved from previously intergenic sequences in the house mouse (Mus musculus) and are not present in its closest r...

Animals show behavioral traits that can collectively be called personality. We focus here on the role of the Prader-Willi Syndrom gene region in regulating personality behavior. It includes two clusters of tandem repeats coding for small nucleolar RNAs, SNORD115 and SNORD116. SNORD115 is known to regulate splicing of the serotonin receptor Ht2cr an...

Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a carbohydrate-binding protein which is thought to be involved in cancer progression but its contribution to epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. The present study sought to determine the role of Gal-3 in chemoresistance of the human SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cell line to paclitaxel (PTX) using recombinant human Gal-3...