Areas of Interest
The major interest in my lab is to study the regulation of synaptic proteins at healthy and compromised neuromuscular junctions (synapses between nerves and muscles). To investigate this issue, the Akaaboune lab uses multi-disciplinary approaches (state-of-the-art optical imaging, molecular, cellular, and biochemical) and mice as model organisms (in addition to a culture cell system).
Dr. Akaaboune received his DEA and Ph.D. from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris 6) in Paris, France. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Lichtman's laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
Research Interests: Regulation of synaptic proteins at developing and mature NMJs, postsynaptic proteins dynamics, neuromuscular diseases, and obesity.
He has been awarded the highly prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship, and he was a finalist in the 1999 James L. O'Leary Prize Competition in Neuroscience. He was also an NIH and French Medical Research Fellow.
Published Articles or Reviews
- Martinez-Pena y Valenzuela I, Chen PJ, Barden J, Kosloski O, and Akaaboune M. Distinct roles of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex: α-dystrobrevin and α-syntrophin in the maintenance of the postsynaptic apparatus of the neuromuscular synapse. Human Molecular Genetics, 2022 Feb 14:ddac041. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddac041.
- Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M. The metabolic stability of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor at the neuromuscular junction. Cells. 2021 Feb 9;10(2):358.
- Chen PJ, Zelada D, Belhasan DC, Akaaboune M. Phosphorylation of α-dystrobrevin is essential for αkap accumulation and acetylcholine receptor stability. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2020 Jul 31;295(31):10677-10688.
- Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M. The disassembly of the neuromuscular synapse in high-fat diet-induced obese male mice. Molecular Metabolism. 2020 Jun;36:100979.