Malú G. Tansey facts for kids

Malú G. Tansey is an American scientist who studies the brain and how our bodies work. She is a top leader at the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Dr. Tansey is also a special investigator for brain research.

She leads the Tansey Lab, where her team studies how the brain's immune system affects brain diseases. Her main goal is to understand how inflammation in the body and brain contributes to diseases. These include age-related brain conditions like Alzheimer's disease and lateral sclerosis.

Early Life and Education

Malú Tansey started her college journey in 1980 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. She earned her bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. She then continued at Stanford to get her master's degree in the same field.

After graduating in 1985, Dr. Tansey went to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. There, she studied how muscles contract. She discovered that other cell processes, not just one, help control muscle tension. She also learned how a specific protein helps regulate muscle contraction.

After her graduate studies in 1992, Dr. Tansey moved to Washington University in St. Louis. She worked on understanding how brain cells survive. Her team found that a process called PI-3-K activity was important for cell survival.

She also worked with another lab to study a group of proteins called GDNF family ligands (GFL). These proteins are important for neuron survival. They found that for GFLs to work correctly, they needed to connect with other parts of the cell.

Career and Research

After her studies, Dr. Tansey worked in California for a few years. She led a team at Zencor Inc. in Monrovia. Her work there focused on finding ways to block a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF).

In 2002, Dr. Tansey returned to teaching and research at the University of Texas Southwestern. She continued to study how TNF affects the brain and diseases.

In 2008, she became a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She became a tenured professor, meaning she had a permanent position. She also worked to make science more diverse and welcoming for all students.

In 2019, Dr. Tansey joined the University of Florida. She became the director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease. She also serves on the board of directors for the World Parkinson's Coalition. This group works to help people with Parkinson's disease.

The Tansey Lab studies how the nervous system and immune system interact. They focus on how TNF affects brain inflammation in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. They also look at how special brain cells called microglia contribute to brain diseases.

Understanding TNF in Brain Diseases

Dr. Tansey has spent a lot of time studying how TNF causes disease. She also looks for ways to stop its harmful actions. Her team developed a special TNF protein that could block the normal TNF from working.

They found that blocking TNF helped reduce problems in animal models of disease. When they blocked TNF in models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, it slowed down the disease. It also reduced brain inflammation. This suggests that targeting TNF could be a good way to treat these diseases.

Chronic Inflammation and Brain Health

Dr. Tansey is a leader in understanding how long-lasting inflammation affects brain diseases. It was once thought that the immune system didn't really exist in the brain. But now we know it does, and special brain cells called microglia are key players.

Short-term inflammation in the brain can be helpful, like when you have an injury. But if inflammation lasts too long, it can harm brain cells. Dr. Tansey helps explain the difference between helpful short-term inflammation and harmful long-term inflammation. She shows how microglia can lead to brain cell damage when inflammation becomes chronic.

She also found that a protein called RGS10 might protect the brain from chronic inflammation. When RGS10 was removed in mice, it led to more harmful inflammation and brain cell death. This suggests that RGS10 could be a target for new treatments for Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Tansey also explores how our genes and environment work together. She studies how diet affects immune cells entering the brain. Her findings showed that certain diets did not increase immune cell movement into the brain. She also found that early life stress affects the brain's immune system differently in males and females.

Awards and Honors

• 2019 Keynote Address at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference-Satellite Symposium
• 2013 GIN Faculty of the Year Award Emory University
• 2000 O'Leary Prize Winner
• 1991 Ida M. Green Award in Physiology

Select Publications