W Sue Griffin

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
The Alexa and William T Dillard Professor and Vice Chair for Research of the Donald W Reynolds Department of Geriatrics and the Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas College of Medicine of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Director of Research at the Central Arkansas Veterans HealthCare System, Little Rock, Arkansas.

EDUCATION:
BS (with Honors) and MS in Nutrition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, and PhD in Physiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY.

EDITORIAL POSITION:
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Neuroinflammation HTTP://jneuroinflammation.com

MEMBERSHIPS:
• Society for Neuroscience
• Neurochemistry Society
• Dana Alliance
• Founding Member, Medical and Scientific Advisory Council, National Alzheimers Association
• Alzheimer Disease Research Center Advisory Board Member, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
• Board Member Arkansas Oklahoma Alzheimers Association Chapter
• International Women’s Forum
• Advisory Council Member, Winrock International
• Arkansas Women of Power

HONORS AND AWARDS:
• Alpha Lambda Delta Fraternity Member
• Predoctoral US Public Health Service Fellow
• Postdoctoral Moss Fellow in Cardiology
• United States Public Health Service National Institutes of Health Awards 1977 to 2014
• Chairman National Institute on Aging Review Committee for Drug Discovery Groups for the Treatment of Cognitive Impairment
• Member, National Institutes of Health Reviewers' Reserve
• Favorite Faculty Woman Southwestern Medical School
• Distinguished Faculty Scholar, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dr Griffin focuses on the mechanisms involved in driving forces underlying the progression of Alzheimer's Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders characterized by glial activation with elevated production and release of proinflammatory proteins, in particular the pluripotent immune response generating cytokine interleukin-1. Dr Griffin was first to demonstrate a link between excess expression of interleukin-1 and precocious of development of Alzheimer's disease in disorders such as head injury, epilepsy, AIDS, Down’s syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease. The findings of Dr Griffin’s team are seen as significant breakthroughs in the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's, bringing nationwide acclaim for Dr Griffin and the Donald W Reynolds Department of Geriatrics and Institute on Aging. As part of these studies, the team has shown that interleukin-1 increases the expression of the precursors of each of the substrates necessary for formation of common features characteristic of the neuropathological changes in Alzheimer's disease. These interleukin-1-related activities include neuronal synthesis of betaAPP for Abeta plaque development: synthesis of the neuronal kinase MAPK-p38, which is required for tau hyperphosphorylation and for downregulation of synaptophysin; activation of astrocytes and their synthesis of S100B, the neurite growth promoting cytokine related to the presence of the neurites in Abeta plaques, which is the diagnostic feature of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, Dr Griffin’s team has shown that ApoE promotes synthesis of betaAPP, the neuronal acute phase protein, in a genotype specific manner with ApoE3 more effective that ApoE4. Moreover, the team demonstrated that such stress-induced betaAPP expression in neurons is compromised with aging and with regard to neuronal plaque proximity. Further research into specific mechanisms that may serve as drug targets are being pursued in Dr Griffin’s group.

HOME PAGE
http://www.uams.edu/neuroscience_cellbiology/faculty/details.asp?id=65