Trent Watkins, PhD

Asst Professor in Residence
Neurology
[email protected]
+1 415 514-4168

The Watkins Lab seeks to harness intrinsic repair programs to restore function to the damaged and diseased nervous system. Using axon injury as a primary model, the lab's research focuses on the signaling pathways and transcriptional responses that determine the fates of distressed neurons. These responses include programs that can, in the case of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), enable remarkable axon regeneration and recovery of function. In the central nervous system (CNS), however, these same programs typically fail to overcome barriers to regeneration and instead can become major drivers of neurodegeneration. Understanding and controlling these stress signaling pathways and transcriptional programs therefore may generate opportunities for both neuroprotection and improved repair.

The Watkins Lab relocated in 2023 from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to the Division of Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology at UCSF. This move offers promising new opportunities for collaborative studies to understand the interplay among intrinsic neuronal stress responses, neuroinflammation, and myelin repair.

Research Summary: 
The Watkins Lab studies axonal stress signaling to understand how transcriptional programs determine neuronal fate in injury and disease, from driving neurodegeneration to enabling axon regeneration
Publications: 

Remyelination protects neurons from DLK-mediated neurodegeneration.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Duncan GJ, Ingram SD, Emberley K, Hill J, Cordano C, Abdelhak A, McCane M, Jabassini N, Ananth K, Ferrara SJ, Stedelin B, Sivyer B, Aicher SA, Scanlan T, Watkins TA, Mishra A, Nelson J, Green AJ, Emery B

Coordinated stimulation of axon regenerative and neurodegenerative transcriptional programs by Atf4 following optic nerve injury.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Somasundaram P, Farley MM, Rudy MA, Stefanoff DG, Shah M, Goli P, Heo J, Wang S, Tran NM, Watkins TA

DLK-dependent mitochondrial fission drives axon degeneration and neuronal cell death.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Jorge GJ, Nebiyou M, Alkaslasi MR, Somasundaran P, Slavutsky AL, Ward ME, Watkins TA, Le Pichon CE

Intrinsic Neuronal Stress Response Pathways in Injury and Disease.

Annual review of pathology

Farley MM, Watkins TA

Dual leucine zipper kinase-dependent PERK activation contributes to neuronal degeneration following insult.

eLife

Larhammar M, Huntwork-Rodriguez S, Jiang Z, Solanoy H, Sengupta Ghosh A, Wang B, Kaminker JS, Huang K, Eastham-Anderson J, Siu M, Modrusan Z, Farley MM, Tessier-Lavigne M, Lewcock JW, Watkins TA

JNK-mediated phosphorylation of DLK suppresses its ubiquitination to promote neuronal apoptosis.

The Journal of cell biology

Huntwork-Rodriguez S, Wang B, Watkins T, Ghosh AS, Pozniak CD, Bustos D, Newton K, Kirkpatrick DS, Lewcock JW

DLK initiates a transcriptional program that couples apoptotic and regenerative responses to axonal injury.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Watkins TA, Wang B, Huntwork-Rodriguez S, Yang J, Jiang Z, Eastham-Anderson J, Modrusan Z, Kaminker JS, Tessier-Lavigne M, Lewcock JW

ZFP191 is required by oligodendrocytes for CNS myelination.

Genes & development

Howng SY, Avila RL, Emery B, Traka M, Lin W, Watkins T, Cook S, Bronson R, Davisson M, Barres BA, Popko B

Differential clustering of Caspr by oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells.

Journal of neuroscience research

Eisenbach M, Kartvelishvily E, Eshed-Eisenbach Y, Watkins T, Sorensen A, Thomson C, Ranscht B, Barnett SC, Brophy P, Peles E

Myelin gene regulatory factor is a critical transcriptional regulator required for CNS myelination.

Cell

Emery B, Agalliu D, Cahoy JD, Watkins TA, Dugas JC, Mulinyawe SB, Ibrahim A, Ligon KL, Rowitch DH, Barres BA

NGF controls axonal receptivity to myelination by Schwann cells or oligodendrocytes.

Neuron

Chan JR, Watkins TA, Cosgaya JM, Zhang C, Chen L, Reichardt LF, Shooter EM, Barres BA

Integrins as developmental switches.

Nature cell biology

Watkins TA, Barres BA

Nerve regeneration: regrowth stumped by shared receptor.

Current biology : CB

Watkins TA, Barres BA

Combination of gene delivery and DNA vaccination to protect from and reverse Th1 autoimmune disease via deviation to the Th2 pathway.

Immunity

Garren H, Ruiz PJ, Watkins TA, Fontoura P, Nguyen LT, Estline ER, Hirschberg DL, Steinman L

Regulatory mechanisms of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase.

Molecular and cellular biochemistry

Alvarez-Gonzalez R, Watkins TA, Gill PK, Reed JL, Mendoza-Alvarez H