Principal Investigator, Linus Pauling Institute
Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine
Contact:
357 LPSC
541-737-6923
[email protected]
Dr. Kathy Magnusson is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and a Principal Investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. She received a D.V.M. degree from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in 1982 and pursued a Ph.D. in Veterinary Anatomy/Neuroscience, which she earned in 1989. Following her Ph.D., she has taught and done research at Colorado State University and the WWAMI Medical Program at University of Idaho. Dr. Magnusson currently teaches practical neuroscience to freshman veterinary students. She has been funded by NIH for a majority of her research career, including several Career Development awards that helped her expand her research into aging, Alzheimer’s Disease and human cognitive testing. She is actively engaged in multidisciplinary research at Oregon State University with biochemists, nutritionists, virologists, microbiologists, and engineers and provides undergraduate and veterinary students with hands-on training in the scientific method.
Research Interests
I am an aging neuroscientist, interested in how we can prevent or repair the declines that occur during aging in learning and memory ability. I am hoping to figure this out before I forget what the question is.
We have been characterizing changes in the expression of a receptor that is very important for the formation of memories, the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. This receptor uses glutamate as a transmitter. The NMDA receptor shows greater declines in binding of glutamate with increased age than any of the other glutamate receptors, affecting both short- and long-term memory. Ultimately, we want to discover the mechanisms underlying the age-related changes in the NMDA receptor.
In order to enhance the translation of our work, we have recently developed a virtual water maze for testing human subjects. This task is designed to be similar to the water maze task that we use to assess memory in mice. We believe that this will enhance our ability to transition from screening interventions in mice to testing them in humans, by using the same task. We have used this task to study the effects of blackberries and prior military service on cognitive aging.
We have recently begun applying our skills to characterize early changes in an Alzheimer’s Disease mouse model. We believe that this will help us develop interventions to prevent the development of this devastating neurodegenerative disease.
Education
- B.S., Veterinary Science, University of Minnesota
- D.V.M., Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
- Ph.D., Veterinary Anatomy/Neuroscience, University of Minnesota
Featured Publications
Zamzow DR, Elias V, Acosta V, Escobedo E, Magnusson KR. (2019) Higher levels of protein palmitoylation in the frontal cortex across aging were associated with reference memory and executive function declines. eNeuro. 6(1):ENEURO.0310-18.2019. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0310-18.2019.
Reynolds NC, Zhong JY, Clendinen CA, Moffat SD, Magnusson KR. (2019) Age-related differences in brain activations during spatial memory formation in a well-learned virtual Morris water maze (vMWM) task. Neuroimage. 202:116069. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116069.
García-Jaramillo M, Beaver LM, Truong L, Axton ER, Keller RM, Prater MC, Magnusson KR, Tanquay RL, Stevens JF, Hord NG (2020) Nitrate and nitrite exposure leads to mild anxiogenic-like behavior and alters brain metabolomic profile in zebrafish. PLoS One. 15(12):e0240070. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240070.
Wong C, Magnusson KR, Sharpton T, Ho E. (2021) Effects of zinc status on age-related T cell dysfunction and chronic inflammation. Biometals. 34(2):291-301. doi: 10.1007/s10534-020-00279-5.
Dorigatti AO, Riordan R, Yu Z, Ross G, Wang R, Reynolds-Lallement N, Magnusson K, Galvan V, Perez V. (2022) Brain cellular senescence in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Gerosciences. 44(2):1157-1168. doi: 10.1007/s11357-022-00531-5.
Mollusky A, Reynolds-Lallement N, Lee D, Zhong JY, Magnusson KR. (2024) Investigating the effects of age and prior military service on fluid and crystallized cognitive functions using virtual morris water maze (vMWM) and NIH Toolbox tasks. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 116:105156. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2023.105156.
Full Publication List from PubMed