Ronald Mandel Ron Mandel's lab studies animal models of neurological disorders using mainly gene transfer techniques. We are interested in both treatment and studying the etiology of disease using rAAV vectors. Professor of Neuroscience Investigator, McKnight Brain Institute Training Postdoc - University of California San Diego (1986-1988) University of Lund, Sweden (1988-1990) Ph.D. Psychology, University of Southern California B.S. Duke University Contact phone: 352.294.0446 office: MBI L4-120 lab: MBI L5-112, L5-100E, L5-152, L5-156 email: rmandel@mbi.ufl.edu Mandel lab site Our research focuses on the application of gene transfer to study animal models of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, neuromuscular disorders, and Canavan's disease. The various strategies include the use of recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (rAAV) to introduce wild-type genes, genes encoding neurotrophins, and ribozymes and siRNA to knockdown expression. We also have very important studies underway to develop regulated vectors to express GDNF and to study the neuro-immunology of rAAV injections in the brain. Another major interest in the laboratory is using rAAV vectors to study the etiology of Parkinson's disease Recent Publications Intrastriatal rAAV-mediated delivery of anti-huntingtin shRNAs induces partial reversal of disease progression in R6/1 Huntington's disease transgenic mice. Rodriguez-Lebron E, Denovan-Wright EM, Nash K, Lewin AS, Mandel RJ. Mol Ther. 2005 Jul 11; [Epub ahead of print] Hypothalamic rAAV-mediated GDNF gene delivery ameliorates age-related obesity. Tumer N, Scarpace PJ, Dogan MD, Broxson CS, Matheny M, Yurek DM, Peden CS, Burger C, Muzyczka N, Mandel RJ. Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Jun 15; [Epub ahead of print] Continuous low-level glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor delivery using recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors provides neuroprotection and induces behavioral recovery in a primate model of Parkinson's disease. Eslamboli A, Georgievska B, Ridley RM, Baker HF, Muzyczka N, Burger C, Mandel RJ, Annett L, Kirik D. J Neurosci. 2005 Jan 26;25(4):769-77. Reversal of dyskinesias in an animal model of Parkinson's disease by continuous L-DOPA delivery using rAAV vectors. Carlsson T, Winkler C, Burger C, Muzyczka N, Mandel RJ, Cenci A, Bjorklund A, Kirik D. Brain. 2005 Mar;128(Pt 3):559-69. Epub 2005 Jan 19.