Ashley Brown, PhD

Immunology, autoimmunity, geroscience

Research Experience

Medical College of Wisconsin, 2020-2024
Advisor: Weiguo Cui, PhD
Project: Requirement of PIM1 for CD8 T cell cytotoxicity in type 1 diabetes (F30DK132807)

Mayo Clinic, Robert & Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, 2016-2018
Advisor: Nathan LeBrasseur, PhD
Project: Developing a standardized battery of clinically relevant resilience challenges and outcome measures to assess healthy aging

Boston College, 2014-2016 (MS)
Advisor: Thomas Seyfried, PhD
Thesis: Investigating the effect of energy substrates and LPS-activation on the in vitro energy metabolism of BV-2, RAW264.7, and VM-M3 cells

Boston College, 2012-2014 (BS)
Advisor: Thomas Seyfried, PhD
Project: Etomoxir induced triglyceride accumulation and reduced energy production in murine glioblastoma cells

The Hormel Institute, Nutrition and Metabolism, 2012
Advisor: Margot Cleary, PhD
Project: Protein and lipid oxidative damage in breast cancer 

Publications

Brown AK, Mazula DL, Roberts L, Roos C, Zhang B, Pearsall VM, Schafer MJ, White TA, Huang R, Kumar N, Miller JD, Miller RA, LeBrasseur NK. Physical Resilience as a Predictor of Lifespan and Late-Life Health in Genetically Heterogeneous Mice. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2024 Jan 1;79(1):glad207. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glad207. PMID: 37701988; PMCID: PMC10733175.

Zhang J, Chang J, Chen V, Beg MA, Huang W, Vick L, Wang Y, Zhang H, Yttre E, Gupta A, Castleberry M, Zhang Z, Dai W, Song S, Zhu J, Yang M, Brown AK, Xu Z, Ma YQ, Smith BC, Zielonka J, Traylor JG, Dhaou CB, Orr AW, Cui W, Zheng Z, Chen Y. Oxidized LDL regulates efferocytosis through the CD36-PKM2-mtROS pathway. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Jul 15:2023.09.07.556574. doi: 10.1101/2023.09.07.556574. PMID: 39071358; PMCID: PMC11275753.

Kasmani MY, Topchyan P, Brown AK, Brown RJ, Wu X, Chen Y, Khatun A, Alson D, Wu Y, Burns R, Lin CW, Kudek MR, Sun J, Cui W. A spatial sequencing atlas of age-induced changes in the lung during influenza infection. Nat Commun. 2023 Oct 18;14(1):6597. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42021-y. PMID: 37852965; PMCID: PMC10584893.

Topchyan P, Zander R, Kasmani MY, Nguyen C, Brown A, Lin S, Burns R, Cui W. Spatial transcriptomics demonstrates the role of CD4 T cells in effector CD8 T cell differentiation during chronic viral infection. Cell Rep. 2022 Nov 29;41(9):111736. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111736. PMID: 36450262; PMCID: PMC9792173.

Kasmani MY, Ciecko AE, Brown AK, Petrova G, Gorski J, Chen YG, Cui W. Autoreactive CD8 T cells in NOD mice exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity but restricted TCR gene usage. Life Sci Alliance. 2022 Jun 6;5(10):e202201503. doi: 10.26508/lsa.202201503. PMID: 35667687; PMCID: PMC9170949.

Volberding PJ, Xin G, Kasmani MY, Khatun A, Brown AK, Nguyen C, Stancill JS, Martinez E, Corbett JA, Cui W. Suppressive neutrophils require PIM1 for metabolic fitness and survival during chronic viral infection. Cell Rep. 2021 May 25;35(8):109160. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109160. PMID: 34038722; PMCID: PMC8182757.

Schafer MJ, Zhang X, Kumar A, Atkinson EJ, Zhu Y, Jachim S, Mazula DL, Brown AK, Berning M, Aversa Z, Kotajarvi B, Bruce CJ, Greason KL, Suri RM, Tracy RP, Cummings SR, White TA, LeBrasseur NK. The senescence-associated secretome as an indicator of age and medical risk. JCI Insight. 2020 Jun 18;5(12):e133668. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.133668. PMID: 32554926; PMCID: PMC7406245.

Schafer MJ, Mazula DL, Brown AK, White TA, Atkinson E, Pearsall VM, Aversa Z, Verzosa GC, Smith LA, Matveyenko A, Miller JD, LeBrasseur NK. Late-life time-restricted feeding and exercise differentially alter healthspan in obesity. Aging Cell. 2019 Aug;18(4):e12966. doi: 10.1111/acel.12966. Epub 2019 May 21. PMID: 31111669; PMCID: PMC6612646.

Coffman K, Martínez-Gálvez G, Brown AK, Matchett W, Horazdovsky B. (2018). Providing Pedagogy Education for Aspiring Instructors at Institutions Without Formal Pedagogy Curriculum or Undergraduate Populations. Journal of College Science Teaching, 48(2), 14-20. doi:10.2307/26616263

Flores RE, Brown AK, Taus L, Khoury J, Glover F, Kami K, Sarangarajan R, Walshe TE, Narain NR, Kiebish MA, Shelton LM, Chinopoulos C, Seyfried TN. Mycoplasma infection and hypoxia initiate succinate accumulation and release in the VM-M3 cancer cells. Biochim Biophys Acta Bioenerg. 2018 Sep;1859(9):975-983. doi: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2018.03.012. Epub 2018 Mar 23. PMID: 29580805.

Meeting Abstracts

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster and oral presentation at Autumn Immunology Conference. Chicago, IL. Nov 2023.

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster presented at 38th Annual MD/PhD National Student Conference. Copper Mountain, CO. July 2023.

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster presented at Immunology 2023. Washington, DC. May 2023.

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster and oral presentation at Autumn Immunology Conference. Chicago, IL. Nov 2022.

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster presented at 32nd Annual School of Graduate Studies and Office of Postdoctoral Education Research Day. Milwaukee, WI. Oct 2022.

Brown AK, Shen J, Volberding PJ, Cui W. PIM kinases are essential for CD8 T cell effector function and metabolism during chronic viral infection. Poster presented at the Center for Immunology 12th Annual Immunology Scientific Retreat. Milwaukee, WI. June 2022.

Brown AK, Mazula DL, Zhang B, Roos CM, White TA, Miller RA, Miller JD,LeBrasseur NK. Physical Resilience as a Determinant of Healthy Aging. Poster presented at 9th Annual Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging Conference. Rochester, MN. Oct 2018.

Brown AK, Mazula DL, Zhang B, Roos CM, White TA, Miller RA, Miller JD,LeBrasseur NK. Physical Resilience as a Determinant of Healthy Aging. Poster presented at Experimental Biology. San Diego, CA. April 2018.

Brown AK, Martínez-Gálvez G, Coffman KE, Matchett WE, and Horazdovsky BF. Twin Talk Series: A novel method to foster peer-to-peer pedagogical training. Poster presented at Experimental Biology. San Diego, CA. April 2018.

Brown AK, Mazula DL, Zhang B, Roos CM, White TA, Miller RA, Miller JD,LeBrasseur NK. Physical Resilience as a Determinant of Healthy Aging. Poster presented at Mayo Clinic Young Investigators Research Symposium. Rochester, MN. March 2018.

Brown AK, Ta L, Flores R, Seyfried TN. Etomoxir Induced Triglyceride Accumulation and Reduced Energy Production in Murine Glioblastoma Cells. Poster presented at SACNAS East Coast Regional Meeting. Chestnut Hill, MA. March 2015.

General Interests

Running, cycling, pedagogy, and classical studies