Sarah Ackerman, PhD

Sarah Ackerman, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology

Division

  • Neuropathology

Additional Titles

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Brain Immunology and Glia

Education

  • BS: The College of New Jersey
  • PhD: Washington University School of Medicine

Recognition

  • BBRF Young Investigator Grant Awardee, 2023
  • Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience, 2023-2026
  • BRAIN Initiative K99/R00 Awardee, 2021
  • Leading Edge Fellow, 2020
  • Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship, ALS Association, 2018-2020
  • NIH/NINDS Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32), 2016-2018
  • NIH/NINDS Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31), 2014-2016

Research Interests

The Ackerman lab uses both zebrafish and fruit fly model systems to determine how distinct glial cell populations (individually and collectively) instruct nervous system development and disease, from synapses to circuits.

DBBS Affiliation

Neuroscience, Developmental, Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology, Molecular Genetics and Genomics, Immunology

Selected Publications

PubMed Search
Lago-Baldaia, I., Cooper, M., Seroka, A., Trivedi, C., Powell, G. T., Wilson, S. W., Ackerman, S. D.*, & Fernandes, V. M.* (2023). A Drosophila glial cell atlas reveals a mismatch between transcriptional and morphological diversity. PLoS biology, 21(10), e3002328. URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002328
Ackerman, S.D., Perez-Catalan, N.†, Freeman, M.R., and Doe, C.Q* (2021). Astrocytes close a motor
circuit critical period. Nature. 592: 414–420. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03441-2
do Lago e Baldaia, I., Fernandes, V.M., Ackerman, S.D. (2020). More than mortar: glia as architects
of nervous system development and disease. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8:611269. URL: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.611269/full
Perez-Catalan, N., Doe, C.Q., and Ackerman, S.D. (2020). Astrocytes in circuit plasticity and function. Neural Dev. 16(1):1. URL: https://neuraldevelopment.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13064-020-00151-9
Ackerman S.D., Luo, R., Poitelon, Y., Mogha, A., Harty, B.L., D’Rozario, M., Sanchez, N.E., Lakkaraju, A.K.K., Gamble, P., Li, J., Qu, J., MacEwan, M.R., Ray, W.Z., Aguzzi, A., Feltri, M.L., Piao, X., Monk, K.R. (2018). GPR56/ADGRG1 regulates development and maintenance of peripheral myelin. J Exp Med. 215:941-961. URL: https://rupress.org/jem/article/215/3/941/42577/GPR56-ADGRG1-regulates-development-and-maintenance
Salzman, G.S., Ackerman, S.D., Ding, C., Koide, A., Leon, K., Luo, R., Stoveken, H.M., Tall, G., Piao, X., Monk, K.R., Koide, S., Araç, D. (2016). Structural basis for regulation of GPR56/ADGRG1 by its alternatively spliced extracellular domains. Neuron 91: 1292-1304. URL: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(16)30514-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627316305141%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
Ackerman, S.D. and Monk, K.R. (2016). The scales and tales of myelination: using zebrafish and mouse to study myelinating glia. Brain Res. 1641: 79-91. URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006899315007489?via%3Dihub
Ackerman, S.D., Garcia, C., Piao, X., Gutmann, D.H., and Monk, K.R. (2015). The adhesion GPCR Gpr56 regulates oligodendrocyte development via interactions with Gα12/13 and RhoA. Nat Comm. 6: 6122. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7122

Assistant
Randi Lee
314-273-1733
Lee.r@wustl.edu
BJC-IOH Room 8602