Karen Mruk, PhD
Assistant Professor
Email: mrukk23@ecu.edu
Voice: 252-744-1171
Office: 6S-20
Lab: 6S-18
Education
- B.A. (Honors), Biochemistry, Drew University, Madison, NJ
- PhD, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Overview of the Mruk Lab
Central nervous system (CNS) injuries affect multiple cell types. After the initial damage, additional tissue loss exacerbates the injury leading to permanent dysfunction. There is no effective cure for CNS injuries often leading to a lifetime of therapy and permanent disability. The Mruk lab studies CNS injuries using the zebrafish because the zebrafish CNS shares many organizational, cellular and molecular pathways with mammals. Despite these similarities, zebrafish are able to recover their movement after injury. We use a combination of electrophysiology, fluorescent imaging, behavior, and bioinformatics to understand how the entire CNS network responds and subsequently recovers from injury.
Please visit our lab-specific web page for more detailed information about our research program.