Michael Koob
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Credentials
PhD
Research Summary
Dr. Koob is a member of the Division of Molecular Pathology and Genomics. His laboratory develops novel tools for engineering the genomes of laboratory animals to learn how genes that cause mitochondrial and neurodegenerative diseases function. These tools allow researchers to transfer the lengthy human DNA sequences of disease-causing genes into mice and track their function and create transgenic mice carrying human genes with consistent marker mutations so they can be tracked through tissue development and growth.Beginning with cell line research, Koop and his colleagues have now developed full mouse models in which the mitochondrial content of cells can be precisely controlled. They are using these models to study multiple sclerosis (MS), which can be artificially induced in mice. Different strains of mice with different mitochondrial genes are differentially susceptible to induced MS, suggesting that cellular mitochondria constitute the genetic susceptibility locus for the disease. They are working on a model that can control the cell types such as T-cells that may be involved in addition to the oligodendrocytes that MS disables. In MS, mismanaged protein accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The tight ER-mitochondria interface may include a signaling pathway for mitochondrial involvement in MS, which a good animal model can help to identify. Koob is using restriction enzymes that cut DNA differentially in different mouse strains, heteroplastic mice with different mitochondrial genomes, and a variant of the cre-lox recombination system (flox) to identify the specific cell types involved. Molecular tools are now available to pave the way for genetic therapy of mitochondrial diseases following animal studies.As a faculty researcher in the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, Koob is collaborating with among others Karen Hsiao Ashe who developed a mouse model for Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s. Koob's team can engineer specific mutations in the Alzheimer's gene that are reproducible through successive generations of laboratory mice, allowing them to control for the "noise" of genetic variation. The technique they developed using engineered bacterial plasmids which they put into mouse embryonic stem cells allows them to transfer larger intact segments of human DNA into mice than has previously been possible including expanded trinucleotide repeat sequences found in ataxias and Huntington's disease.In collaboration with researchers at the Mayo Clinic, Koob is developing a mouse model for a fairly common corneal dystrophy disease whose causative gene is characterized by an unstable expanded trinucleotide repeat. Using bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) and engineered plasmids, Koob's team has developed a technique that can replace unexpanded trinucleotide repeats with the expanded variants found in neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases and related diseases like corneal dystrophy.
Publications
- Rodney A, Karanjeet K, Benzow K, Koob MD. A common Alu insertion in the 3'UTR of TMEM106B is associated with risk of dementia. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Jun 26. doi: 10.1002/alz.14090
- Benzow K, Karanjeet K, Oblak AL, Carter GW, Sasner M, Koob MD. Gene replacement-Alzheimer's disease (GR-AD): Modeling the genetics of human dementias in mice. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Apr;20(4):3080-3087. doi: 10.1002/alz.13730.
- Duvick L, Southern WM, Benzow KA, Burch ZN, Handler HP, Mitchell JS, Kuivinen H, Gadiparthi U, Yang P, Soles A, Sheeler CA, Rainwater O, Serres S, Lind EB, Nichols-Meade T, You Y, O'Callaghan B, Zoghbi HY, Cvetanovic M, Wheeler VC, Ervasti JM, Koob MD, Orr HT. Mapping SCA1 regional vulnerabilities reveals neural and skeletal muscle contributions to disease. JCI Insight. 2024 Mar 21;9(9):e176057. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.176057.
- Wei C, Benzow K, Koob MD, Gomez CM, Du X. The Transcription Factor, α1ACT, Acts Through a MicroRNA Network to Regulate Neurogenesis and Cell Death During Neonatal Cerebellar Development. Cerebellum. 2022 Jun 22. doi: 10.1007/s12311-022-01431-2.
- Perissinotti PP, MartĂnez-Hernández E, He Y, Koob MD, Piedras-RenterĂa ES. Genetic Deletion of KLHL1 Leads to Hyperexcitability in Hypothalamic POMC Neurons and Lack of Electrical Responses to Leptin. Front Neurosci. 2021 Sep 9;15:718464. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.718464.
- Castro M, Venkateswaran N, Peters ST, Deyle DR, Bower M, Koob MD, Boeve BF, Vossel K. Case Report: Early-onset behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in patient with retrotransposed full-length transcript of Matrin-3 variant 5. Front Neurol. 2020 Dec 21;11:600468. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.600468.
- Gamache JE, Kemper L, Steuer E, Leinonen-Wright K, Choquette JM, Hlynialuk C, Benzow K, Vossel KA, Xi W, Koob MD, and Ashe KH. Developmental pathogenicity of 4-repeat human tau Is lost with the P301L mutation in genetically matched tau-transgenic mice. J Neurosci. 2020;40(1):220-236. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1256-19.2019
- Gamache J, Benzow K, Forster C, Kemper L, Hlynialuk C, Furrow E, Ashe KH, Koob MD. Factors other than hTau overexpression that contribute to tauopathy-like phenotype in rTg4510 mice. Nature Communications 10; June 6, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10428-1.
- Yoon YG, Koob MD. Intramitochondrial transfer and engineering of mammalian mitochondrial genomes in yeast. Mitochondrion. 2019 May;46:15-21. doi: 10.1016/j.mito.2019.03.006. Epub 2019 Apr 11.
Education
Contact
Address
3-140 MBB2101 6th Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455