Scripps Research Joint Appointments

Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine
Department of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Dorris Neuroscience Center
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Faculty, Kellogg School of Science and Technology
Faculty, Kellogg School of Science and Technology

Research Focus

Intracellular Transport and Neurodegeneration

Our lab is interested in characterizing the interactions between molecular motors and their vesicular cargo to regulate axonal transport in neurons.  We use a combination of cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, and high-resolution microscopy in mammalian neurons and in the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, to identify and characterize motor-cargo regulatory complexes. We also seek to integrate and extend our knowledge of motor regulation to dissect the role that defective vesicular transport plays in the accumulation of misfolded proteins inside axons, and scrutinize the hypothesis that this contributes to or causes neurodegeneration.  We use mammalian and C. elegans systems to build models of protein aggregation diseases including prion diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and transthyretin amyloidosis-related diseases, to characterize the role of motor-based transport in toxicity and infectivity.

Education

B.A., Physics, Earlham College, 1992
M.S., Population Genetics, University of Florida, 1995
Ph.D., Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, 2003

Awards & Professional Activities

The Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award 2012-1016
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004-2007
NIH Biophysics and Molecular Biology Pre-doctoral Training Grant, 1998-2003
Pre-doctoral Research Training Grant in Genetic Mechanisms of Evolution, 1997-1998
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 1995
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, 1992
Warren Staebler Scholarship, Earlham College, 1991
Undergraduate Studies Scholarship, Earlham College, 1988-1992
International Scholarship, The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, 1986-1988

Selected References

Szpankowski, L. J., Encalada, S. E., and Goldstein, L. S. B.  (2012). Sub-Pixel Colocalization Reveals Amyloid Precursor Protein Dependent Kinesin-1 and Dynein Association with Axonal Vesicles. PNAS 109(22):8582-7.

Encalada, S. E., L. J. Szpankowski, Xia, C.-H., and Goldstein, L. S. B. (2011). Stable Kinesin and Dynein Assemblies Drive the Axonal Transport of Mammalian Prion Protein Vesicles. Cell 144: 551–565.

Encalada, S. E. and Goldstein, L. S. B. (2009). Axonal Transport of the Prion Protein and Prion Neuroinvasion. In: The New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience (Larry Squire, ed.). Elsevier, Oxford, UK, pp. 1071-1075

Encalada, S. E., Moya, K. L., Lehmann, S., and Zahn, R. (2008). The role of the prion protein in the molecular basis for synaptic plasticity and nervous system development. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience 34(1):9-15. Epub 2007 Jun 14.

Encalada, S. E., Willis, J., Lyczak, R., and Bowerman, B. (2005). A Spindle Checkpoint Functions During Mitosis in the Early C. elegans Embryo. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 16: 1056-1070.

Gomes, J.-E., Encalada, S. E., Swan, K. A., Shelton, C. A., Carter, J. C., and Bowerman, B. (2001). The maternal gene spn-4 encodes a predicted RRM protein required for mitotic spindle orientation and cell fate patterning in early C. elegans embryos.  Development 128:4301-4314.

Encalada, S. E., Martin, P. R. , Phillips, J. B., Lyczak, R., Hamill, D. R., Swan, K. A., and Bowerman, B. (2000). DNA replication defects delay cell division and disrupt cell polarity in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos.  Developmental Biology 228:225-238.