Welcome to the Mruk Lab
Research
Central nervous system (CNS) injuries affect multiple cell types and after the initial damage, additional tissue loss exacerbates the injury leading to permanent dysfunction. There is no effective cure for CNS injuries often leading to a lifetime of therapy and permanent disability. The Mruk Lab studies CNS injuries using the zebrafish because although the zebrafish CNS shares many organizational, cellular and molecular pathways with mammals, functional recovery occurs after injury. We use a combination of electrophysiology, fluorescent imaging, behavior, and bioinformatics to understand how the entire CNS network responds and subsequently recovers from injury.
Zebrafish models of regeneration
Cellular response to spinal cord injury
Optogenetic technologies for studying development and regeneration
People
Karen Mruk
PI
Patrick Garrett
PhD Student, Neuroscience
Payge Hoffman
PharmD Student
Kathryn Lorbacher
PhD student, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Tom Rynes
Lab Manager
aka
"Renaissance Man"
Alumni
2020
2020
2021
2023
2023
Publications
2024
Osman, EA, Rynes, TP, Wang, YL, Mruk, K and McKeague M. Non-invasive single cell aptasensing in live cells and animals. Chemical Science (2024) [Pubmed]
Purifoy, EJ and Mruk, K. Differential roles of diet on development and spinal cord regeneration in larval zebrafish Zebrafish (2024) [Pubmed]
2023
Underwood, KL,* Walker, WJ,* Garret, PI, Linch, S, Rynes, TP, and Mruk, K. Optimizing spinal cord injury in zebrafish larvae: effects of age on the injury response (2023) bioRxiv
2022
Williams, R.E.; Mruk, K. Aquatic Freshwater Vertebrate Models of Epilepsy Pathology: Past Discoveries and Future Directions for Therapeutic Discovery. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 8608. [Pubmed]
2020
Mruk, K.*, Ciepla, P., Piza, P. A., Alnaqib, M. A., and Chen, J. K.* (2020) Targeted cell ablation in zebrafish using optogenetic transcriptional control. Development, 147: dev183640 [Pubmed]
2018
Hwang, S., Mruk, K., Rahighi, S., Raub, A. G., Chen, C.-H., Dorn, L. E., Horikoshi, N., Wataksuki, S., Chen, J. K., and Mochly-Rosen, D. (2018) Correcting glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency with a small molecule activator. Nat. Commun. 9: 4045. [PubMed]
2015
Mruk K. and Chen, J. K. (2015) Thinking big with small molecules. J. Cell Biol. 209: 7-9. [PubMed]
Previous Work
Kubat Öktem E, Mruk K, Chang J, Akin A, Kobertz WR, Brown RH Jr. (2016) Mutant SOD1 protein increases Nav1.3 channel excitability. J Biol Phys. 42:351-70 [Pubmed]
Mruk K, Kobertz WR. (2015) Bioreactive Tethers Adv Exp Med Biol. 869:77-100. [Pubmed]
Mruk K, Farley BM, Ritacco AW, Kobertz WR. (2014) Calmodulin meta-analysis: predicting calmodulin binding via canonical motif clustering. J Gen Physiol. 144:105-14. [Pubmed]
Mruk K, Shandilya SM, Blaustein RO, Schiffer CA, Kobertz WR. (2012) Structural insights into neuronal K+ channel-calmodulin complexes. PNAS 109:1357-83. [Pubmed]
O'Connell D, Mruk K, Rocheleau JM, Kobertz WR. (2011) Xenopus laevis oocytes infected with multi-drug-resistant bacteria: implications for electrical recordings. J Gen Physiol. 138:271-7. [Pubmed]
Mruk K, Kobertz WR. (2009) PLoS One. 4:e4236. [Pubmed]
Clancy L, Mruk K, Archer K, Woelfel M, Mongkolsapaya J, Screaton G, Lenardo MJ, Chan FK. (2005) PNAS 102:18099-104. [Pubmed]
In the news
Our paper with the McKeague lab is published in Chemical Science
Emily's paper is accepted in Zebrafish
Contact Us
East Carolina University
Brody School of Medicine
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
600 Moye Boulevard
Greenville, NC 27834
Email: mrukk23@ecu.edu
Office: (252) 744-1171
