Phone: 724-503-1001 x5285
Office: Dieter-Porter 008
Email: klohr@washjeff.edu
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Neuroscience, Molecular Biology
Kelly Lohr, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Academic Program: Biomedical Science, Cell and Molecular Biology, Conservation Biology, Biology
Degrees: Ph.D. Neuroscience, Emory University; B.S. Neuroscience, Dickinson College
Kelly M. Lohr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. She teaches courses in molecular biology, genomics, and neuroscience.
Dr. Lohr studied neuroscience at Dickinson College. She earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she studied changes to the storage and release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the context of Parkinson’s disease. Prior to joining the faculty at W&J, Dr. Lohr was a postdoctoral researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts studying genetic contributions to neurodegenerative disease in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. She has published a number of scientific papers in journals such as The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and American Chemical Society Chemical Neuroscience and has presented her work at national meetings. Her research interests are on gene-environment interactions and secondary contributions to toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Publications
- Sarkar S, Bardai F, Olsen A, Lohr KM, Zhang Y, & Feany MB. (2021) Oligomerization of Lrrk controls actin severing and α-synuclein neurotoxicity in vivo. Molec Neurodegen, 16(33). Link to entry
- Sarkar S, Olsen AL, Sygnecka K, Lohr KM, & Feany MB. (2021) α-synuclein impairs autophagosome maturation through abnormal actin stabilization. PLOS Genetics, 17(2). Link to entry
- Lohr KM, Frost B, Scherzer C, & Feany MB. (2020). Biotin rescues mitochondrial dysfunction and neurotoxicity in a tauopathy model. Proc Natl Acad Sci,117(52):33608-33618. Link to entry
- Branco RC, Burkett J, Black CA, Winokur, E, Elsworth W, Dhamasania, R, Lohr, KM, Schroeder, JP, Weinshenker, D, Jovanovic, T, Miller GW. (2020) Vesicular monoamine transporter 2 mediates fear behavior in mice. Genes Brain Behav, e12634/ Link to entry
- Lohr KM, Masoud S, Salahpour A, & Miller GW. (2017). Membrane transporters as mediators of synaptic dopamine dynamics: implications for disease. Europ J Neurosci, 45(1): 2-33. Link to entry
- Dunn AR, Stout KA, Ozawa M, Lohr KM, Bernstein AI, Li Y, Wang M, Sgobio C, Sastry N, Cai H, Caudle WM, & Miller GW. (2017) Synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2C (SV2C) modulates dopamine release and is disrupted in Parkinson's disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 114(11):2253-2262. Link to entry
- Lohr KM, Chen M, Hoffman C, McDaniel M, Stout KA, Dunn AR, Bernstein AI, Wang M, & Miller GW. (2016). Vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) level regulates MPTP vulnerability and clearance of excess dopamine in mouse striatal terminals. Toxicol Sci, 153(1):79-88. Link to entry
- Cliburn RC, Dunn AR, Stout KA, Hoffman CA, Lohr KM, Bernstein AI, Winokur EJ, Burkett J, Shmitz Y, & Miller GW. (2016) Immunochemical localization of vesicular monoamine transporter 2 in mouse brain. J Chem Neuroanat, 0618(16)30095-3. Link to entry
- Stout KA, Dunn AR, Lohr KM, Ozawa M, Alter SP, Cliburn RC, Guillot TS, & Miller GW. (2016) Selective enhancement of dopamine release in the ventral pallidum of methamphetamine-sensitized mice. ACS Chem Neurosci, 7(10):1364-1373. Link to entry
- Trossbach SV, Bader V, Hecher L, Pum ME, Schäble S, Prikulis I, de Souza Silva MA, Godsave SF, Peters PJ, Steiner H, Weisshaupt A, Bilzer T, Sauvage M, Boulat B, Chwiesko C, Su P, Liu F, Masoud S, Lohr KM, Stout KA, Miller GW, Bauer A, Ramsey AJ, Brandon NJ, Seeman P, Huston JP, & Korth C. (2016) Misassembly of full length Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) protein is linked to altered dopamine homeostasis and behavioral deficits. Mol Psych, 21(11):1561-1572. Link to entry
- Lohr KM, Stout KA, Dunn AR, Wang M, Salahpour A, Guillot TS, & Miller GW. (2015). Increased vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2; Slc18a2) protects against methamphetamine toxicity. ACS Chem Neuroscience, 6(5): 790-799. Link to entry
- Alter SP, Stout KA, Lohr KM, Taylor TN, Shepherd KR, Wang M, Guillot TS, Miller GW. (2015). Reduced vesicular monoamine transport disrupts serotonin signaling but does not cause serotonergic degeneration. Exp Neurol, 1:17-24. Link to entry
- Coughlan C, Walker DI, Lohr KM, Lazo CR, Richardson JR, Saba LM, Caudle WM, Fritz KS, & Roede, JR. (2015). Comparative proteomic analysis of carbonylated proteins from the striatum and cortex of pesticide treated mice. Parkinson’s Disease, Art. ID: 812532. Link to entry
- Liu G, Sgobio C, Gu X, Sun L, Lin X, Yu J, Parisiadou L, Xie C, Sastry N, Ding J, Lohr KM, Miller GW, Mateo Y, Lovinger DM, & Cai H. (2015) Selective expression of Parkinson’s disease-related Leucine-rich Repeat Kinase 2 G2019S missense mutation in midbrain dopaminergic neurons impairs dopamine release and dopaminergic gene expression. Hum Mol Genet, 24(18):5299-312. Link to entry
- Lohr KM & Miller GW. (2014) VMAT2 and Parkinson’s disease: Harnessing the dopamine vesicle. Expert Rev Neurother, 14:1-3. Link to entry
- Lohr KM, Bernstein AI, Stout KA, Dunn AR, Lazo CR, Alter SP, et al. (2014) Increased vesicular monoamine transporter expression enhances dopamine release and opposes Parkinson’s disease-related neurodegeneration in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 111 (27) 9977-9982. Link to entry
- Niblock MM, Lohr KM, Nixon M, Barnes C, Schaudies M, & Murphy M. (2011). Cells in the female retrotrapezoid region upregulate c-fos in response to 10%, but not 5%, carbon dioxide. Brain Research, 1433: 62-68. Link to entry