Kia Barclay

Program: Neurosciences

Current advisor: Qingyun “Tristan” Li, PhD

Undergraduate university: Wellesley College, 2019

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
I developed a novel genetic tool to track and manipulate a specific population of microglia, brain resident immune cells, in development and neurodegeneration. I specifically use this tool to examine gene regulation and plasticity of microglia.

Graduate publications
Barclay KM, Abduljawad N, Cheng Z, Kim MW, Zhou L, Yang J, Rustenhoven J, Mazzitelli JA, Smyth LCD, Kapadia D, Brioschi S, Beatty W, Hou J, Saligrama N, Colonna M, Yu G, Kipnis J, Li Q. 2024 An inducible genetic tool to track and manipulate specific microglial states reveals their plasticity and roles in remyelination. Immunity, 57(6):1394-1412.e8. PMCID: PMC11299637

Xu J, Farsad HL, Hou Y, Barclay K, Lopez BA, Yamada S, Saliu IO, Shi Y, Knight WC, Bateman RJ, Benzinger TLS, Yi JJ, Li Q, Wang T, Perlmutter JS, Morris JC, Zhao G. 2023 Human striatal glia differentially contribute to AD- and PD-specific neurodegeneration. Nat Aging, 3(3):346-65. PMCID: PMC10046522

Matikainen-Ankney BA, Earnest T, Ali M, Casey E, Wang JG, Sutton AK, Legaria AA, Barclay KM, Murdaugh LB, Norris MR, Chang YH, Nguyen KP, Lin E, Reichenbach A, Clarke RE, Stark R, Conway SM, Carvalho F, Al-Hasani R, McCall JG, Creed MC, Cazares V, Buczynski MW, Krashes MJ, Andrews ZB, Kravitz AV. 2021 An open-source device for measuring food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages. Elife, 10():e66173. PMCID: PMC8075584