Profile
Julia George
Biological Sciences
Associate Professor
864-656-2328
Jordan Hall 315 [Research Laboratory Service]
Jordan Hall 321 [Lab]
Jordan Hall 322 [Lab]
Long Hall 231 [Office]
Educational Background
Ph.D., Molecular Neurobiology, The Rockefeller University, 1992
B.S., Biochemistry, Texas A&M University, 1987
Research Interests
My lab studies how life experience influences development, cognition and learning. Many of our experiments use the zebra finch (a small songbird native to Australia and New Zealand) as a model organism. We apply a mixture of molecular, biochemical, and genomic methods to understand mechanisms of healthy brain function and disease. Current projects include understanding how prenatal signals from parents can reprogram the development of their incubating offspring.
Courses Taught
BIOL 4930 - Senior Seminar
BIOL 4200 - Neurobiology
Selected Publications
Yip, P.K., Schmitzberger, M., Al-Hasan, M., George, J., Tripoliti, E., Michael-Titus, A.T., Clayton, D., and Priestley, J.V. (2020) Serotonin expression in the song circuitry of adult male zebra finches. Neuroscience 444:170-182.
George, J.M., Bell, Z.W., Condliffe, D., Dohrer, K., Abaurrea, T., Spencer, K., Leitao, A., Gahr, M., Hurd, P.J., Clayton, D.F. (2019) Acute social isolation alters neurogenomic state in songbird forebrain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1820841116
Bell ZW, Lovell P, Mello CV, Yip P, George JM, Clayton DF (2019) Urotensin-related gene transcripts mark developmental emergence of the male forebrain vocal control system in songbirds. Scientific Reports 9:816.
Ysselstein, D., Dehay, B., Costantino, I.M., McCabe, G.P., Frosch, M.P., George, J.M., Bezard, E., and Rochet, J.C. (2017) Endosulfine-alpha inhibits membrane-induced alpha-synuclein aggregation and protects against alpha-synuclein neurotoxicity, Acta Neuropathologica Communications 5:3.
Tuttle, M.D., Comellas, G., Nieuwkoop, A.J., Covell, D.J., Berthold, D.A., Kloepper, K.D., Courtney, J.M., Kim, J.K., Barclay, A.M., Kendall, A., Wan, W., Stubbs, G., Schwieters, C.D., Lee, V.M.Y., George, J.M., and Rienstra, C.M.(2016) Solid-state NMR structure of a pathogenic fibril of full-length human alpha-synuclein, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 23:409-415.
Busch, D.J., Oliphint, P.A., Walsh, R.B., Banks, S.M.L., Woods, W.S., George, J.M., and Morgan, J.R. (2014) Acute increase of a-synuclein inhibits synaptic vesicle recycling evoked during intense stimulation, Molecular Biology of the Cell 25(24), 3926-3941.
Boassa, D., Berlanga, M., Yang, M.Y., Terada, M., Hu, J., Bushong, E.A., Hwang, M., Masliah, E., George, J.M., and Ellisman, M.H. (2013) Mapping the subcellular distribution of a-synuclein in neurons using genetically encoded probes for correlated light and electron microscopy: implications for Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis, Journal of Neuroscience 33(6), 2605-2615.
