Dolores Irala, PhD
Dolores Irala, PhD

Dolores Irala, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

Departments

Divisions

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow – Duke University, Durham, NC
PhD, Philosophy (Neuroscience) – University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
BS (Cell and Molecular Biology) – University of Lujan, Argentina

Honors & Awards

  • Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences
  • Foerster-Bernstein fellowship for Women in STEM
  • Argentinian National Scientific and Technical Research Council fellowship

Research Interests 

  • Excitatory and inhibitory synaptogenesis
  • Astrocyte-neuron communication
  • Astrocyte-secreted molecules during synapse formation
  • Role of astrocyte dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders

We seek to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive synaptic wiring during brain development. We focus our research on the interaction between neurons and astrocytes to understand how synaptic balance is achieved. Our final goal is to understand how astrocyte-neuron communication determines brain development and how astrocyte dysfunction affects neuronal wiring during neurodevelopmental disorders.  

Contact Information

Dolores Irala, PhD Department of Cell & Molecular Biology MS 326 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, TN 38105-3678

Selected Publications

Savage JT, Ramirez JJ, Risher WC, Wang Y, Irala D*, Eroglu C*. SynBot is an open-source image analysis software for automated quantification of synapses. Cell Rep Methods. 2024 Sep 16;4(9):100861. PMID: 39255792. *co-corresponding

Irala D*, Wang S, Sakers K, Nagendren L, Ulloa Severino FP, Bindu DS, Savage JT, Eroglu C*. Astrocyte-secreted neurocan controls inhibitory synapse formation and function. Neuron 2024 May 15;112(10):1657-1675.e10. PMID: 38574730; PMCID: PMC11098688. *co-corresponding

Irala D, Bonafina A, Fontanet PA, Alsina FC, Paratcha G, Ledda F. The GDNF-GFRα1 complex promotes the development of hippocampal dendritic arbors and spines via NCAM. Development 2016 Nov 15;143(22):4224-4235. PMID: 27707798.

Alsina FC, Hita FJ, Fontanet PA, Irala D, Hedman H, Ledda F, Paratcha G. Lrig1 is a cell-intrinsic modulator of hippocampal dendrite complexity and BDNF signaling. EMBO Rep 2016 Apr;17(4):601-16. PMID: 26935556; PMCID: PMC4818773.

Fontanet P, Irala D, Alsina FC, Paratcha G, Ledda F. Pea3 transcription factor family members Etv4 and Etv5 mediate retrograde signaling and axonal growth of DRG sensory neurons in response to NGF. J Neurosci 2013 Oct 2;33(40):15940-51. PMID: 24089499.

Alsina FC, Irala D, Fontanet PA, Hita FJ, Ledda F, Paratcha G. Sprouty4 is an endogenous negative modulator of TrkA signaling and neuronal differentiation induced by NGF. PLoS One 2012;7(2):e32087. PMID: 22384148.

 

Last update: October 2024

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