Thanks to our team members (Luis Romero, Manisha Bade, Sonia Paz-López) and collaborators (Elisa Carrillo, Vasanthi Jayaraman @frettinglab.bsky.social , Syed Hasan, William James Antonisamy, and Zahoor Shah) 6/6

Our results highlight cytoskeletal dysregulation as a key driver of ion channel and behavioral deficits, and suggest that actin-binding proteins may be targets to enhance motor coordination and spatial learning in AS. 5/6

currents in hippocampal neurons, and improves rotarod and T-maze performance in AS mice. 4/6

In Angelman syndrome (AS), disrupted F-actin affects mechanosensitive and glutamatergic signaling. We show that a first-in-class, selective cofilin inhibitor (SZ-3) stabilizes the actin cytoskeleton, increases cellular stiffness, restores PIEZO2 function in DRG neurons and glutamate-evoked 3/6

It was nicely highlighted by Paige McKeon in “This Week in The Journal: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4... 2/6

(TMC, the world’s largest medical complex). 2/2

This study was a collaborative effort across multiple groups, led by our first graduate student, Dr.
Luis Octavio Romero, in partnership with graduate student Manisha Bade. 3/3

PIEZO1 is abnormally overactive in sickle red blood cells (humans and mice). In mice, an EPA-enriched diet normalized PIEZO1 and reduced hemolysis, hypoxia-induced sickling, and downstream inflammation, suggesting a potential dietary strategy to support people living with sickle cell disease. 2/3