Alyssa Coyne, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor of science degree in biology from Springfield College and her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Arizona.
During her doctoral studies in the lab of Dr. Daniela Zarnescu, she studied the dysregulation of mRNA transport and translation in Drosophila (fruit fly) models of TDP-43 proteinopathies. During her postdoctoral work in Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein's lab at Johns Hopkins University, she used neurons derived from adult-induced pluripotent stem cells, postmortem human tissues, and super-resolution imaging to characterize and understand the cell biological basis of nuclear pore complex injury in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and related neurodegenerative diseases.
In her independent research group, she is investigating the molecular and cell biological mechanisms by which disrupted nuclear pore complex and nuclear envelope homeostasis contributes to the initiation and/or propagation of neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. Dr. Coyne received the ALS Association Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Daniel Nathans award on Johns Hopkins Young Investigators Day. She was recently awarded a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute on Aging.