Professor & Director of Reynolds Family Spine Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery
Dr. Elkabes graduated from Bogazici (Bosphorous) University in Istanbul, Turkey with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Neuroendocrinology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel where she was awarded the Feinberg Graduate School Award for Excellence. Dr. Elkabes pursued her post-doctoral training in neurobiology at the National Institute of Health and Cornell University Medical College. She was a visiting scientist in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Milan, Italy. She held a faculty appointment in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Robert W. Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, before joining the faculty at New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers. She is the director of The Reynolds Family Spine Laboratory in the Department of Neurological Surgery at NJMS-Rutgers.
Dr. Elkabes’ research focuses on neuroprotection, neural regeneration, neuropathic pain, neuro-immune interactions, and the cross-talk between neurons and glia in spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. Her research has been funded by various agencies including the National Institute of Health and New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research. Dr. Elkabes has been a reviewer in NIH study sections since 2008. She has served as a reviewer in national and international funding agencies including The Israel Science Foundation; The Marsden Fund Council, New Zealand; The Medical Research Council, United Kingdom, and The Department of Defense. Dr. Elkabes has served as an ad-hoc reviewer in numerous scientific journals.
Dr. Elkabes is a full member of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) at Rutgers. She received the Golden Axon Award for excellence in neuroscience teaching at NJMS. She has served as an acting co-director, executive committee member, admission committee member, and the first-year advisor of the Integrative Neuroscience Graduate Program, NJMS-Rutgers University joined the graduate program in Newark, NJ. She is currently a member of the Cell Biology, Neuroscience, and Physiology Track committee in the SGS at NJMS-Rutgers.
Research Interests:
- Discovery of novel targets for therapeutic interventions in acute and chronic SCI and MS.
- Development of new therapeutic strategies to reduce neuropathic pain.
- Unraveling the role of innate immunity in the CNS.
- Role of toll-like receptors in CNS development, disorders and injury.
- Contribution of neuronal calcium pumps to neuroprotection and neurodegeneration.
- Axonal protection and regeneration.
- Astrocyte function in injury and disease.
Publication Highlights:
- Li L, Ni L, Eugenin EA, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2019) Toll-like Receptor 9 Antagonism Modulates Astrocyte Function and Preserves Proximal Axons following Spinal Cord Injury. Brain Behav Immun. 80:328-343.
- Mirabelli E, Ni L, Li L, Acioglu C, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2019) Pathological pain processing in mouse models of multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury: contribution of plasma membrane calcium ATPase 2 (PMCA2). J Neuroinflammation. 16:207.
- Khariv V, Ni L, Ratnayake A, Sampath S, Lutz BM, Tao X, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2017) Impaired sensitivity to pain stimuli in plasma membrane calcium ATPase 2 (PMCA2) heterozygous mice: a possible modality- and sex-specific role for PMCA2 in nociception. FASEB J. 31:224-237.
- Acioglu C, Mirabelli E, Baykal AC, Li N, Ratnayake A, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2016) Toll like receptor 9 antagonism modulates spinal cord neuronal survival: direct and astrocyte-mediated mechanisms. Brain Behav Immun. 56:310-24.
- Kurnellas MP, Li H, Jain MR, Giraud SN, Nicot A, Ratnayake A, Heary RF, Elkabes S. (2010) Reduced expression of plasma membrane calcium ATPase 2 and collapsin response mediator protein 1 promotes death of spinal cord neurons: relevance to neurodegeneration in autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Cell Death and Differ, 17:1501-10.
Complete list of published work: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Elkabes+S
Related Projects:
- The therapeutic potential of TLR ligands in spinal cord injury
- Proteomic strategies to define new therapeutic targets in animal models of spinal cord injury and disease
- Etiology of multiple sclerosis using an animal model of the disease
- Role of TLR9 in central nervous system development
- Neuron-glia interactions in the spinal cord
- Neuroprotection in spinal cord injury and disease
- Modulation of the inflammatory response in spinal cord injury and disease
- Early surgical decompression for the treatment of acute traumatic spinal cord injury
- The role of plasma membrane calcium ATPase 2 (PMCA2) in the processing of nociceptive and neuropathic pain signals in the spinal cord