UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Karen Gylys
Synapse Loss in Alzheimer's Disease

Email Address:  kgylys@sonnet.ucla.edu

Work Address:
Factor Building


Phone Numbers:
310 794-5472 laboratory
310-206-3840 Office


Selected Publications:

Ringman JM, Younkin SG, Pratico D, Seltzer W, Cole GM, Geshwind DH, Rodriguez-Agudelo Y, Schaffer B, Fein J, Sokolow S, Rosario ER, Gylys KH, Varpetian A, Medina LD, Cummings JL. Biochemical markers in persons with preclinical familial Alzheimer disease. Neurology 2008; 71(1): 85-92.
Fein JA, Sokolow S, Miller CA, Vinters HV, Yang F, Cole GM , Gylys KH Co-localization of amyloid beta and tau pathology in Alzheimer?s disease synaptosomes. The American Journal of Pathology. 2008; 172(6): 1682-1691.
Gylys Karen H., Fein Jeffrey A., Yang Fusheng, Miller Carol A., Cole Gregory M. Increased Cholesterol in Amyloid beta-positive Nerve terminals from Alzheimers Disease Cortex. Neurobiology of Aging 2007; 28: 8-17.
Gylys, KH Fein, JA Yang, F Wiley, DJ Miller, CA Cole, GM Synaptic changes in Alzheimer's disease: increased amyloid-beta and gliosis in surviving terminals is accompanied by decreased PSD-95 fluorescence.. The American Journal of Pathology. . 2004; 165(5): 1809-17.
Gylys, Karen H., Fein, Jeffrey A, Yang, F, and Cole, Gregory M. Enrichment of pre- and post-synaptic markers by size-based gating analysis of synaptosome preparations from rat and human cortex.. Cytometry Part A ; 60: 90-96.
Gylys, KH, Fein JA, Tan AM, Cole GM Apolipoprotein E enhances uptake of soluble but not aggregated amyloid-beta into synaptic terminals.. J. Neurochem. 2003; 84: 1442-1451.
Cole, G.M. and Gylys, K.H. Detection and analysis of synaptosis. Neuromethods, Vol. 37: Apoptosis techniques and Protocols, 2nd Ed., (LeBlanc A.C., ed.) Humana Press, Inc., Totowa NJP. 2002; .
Gylys, Karen H., Fein, Jeffrey A and Cole, Gregory M. Flow cytometric analysis of a crude synaptosomal fraction (P-2) from rat brain. Journal of Neurosci Res. Journal of Neurosci Res 2000; 61(8): 186-192.
Research Interest:

My lab is focused on understanding early changes in Alzheimer's disease brain, specifically the mechanisms by which synapses degenerate. We study postmortem Alzheimer's tissue and transgenic mouse models of this disease in an effort to identify the earliest pathways of damage and loss, when there may still be opportunity for reversal. Recent projects also include identification of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease in CSF and blood.