Bruce Kagan
Bruce L. Kagan is a psychiatrist and neurophysiologist who joined the UCLA faculty in 1986. He became a full professor in 1998 and served as Director of the Psychiatry Research Residency Track from 1994-2004. He has chaired the Medical Institutional Review Board for Neuropsychiatry since 2004. He is currently Chief of Staff of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. Dr. Kagan earned his BA cum laude in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. He received the MD and Ph.D. (physiology) degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His laboratory research centers on channel forming toxins. He is currently studying channels formed by amyloid peptides in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease to elucidate the pathogenesis of these illnesses. He is also screening chemical libraries for channel blockers that could be used as therapeutic agents.
| Mailing Address: |
760 westwood plaza la, CA 90024 UNITED STATES |
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Research Interests
| Statement on Research Bruce L. Kagan, MD., Ph.D. Dr. Kagan's research focuses on neurotoxicity caused by channel forming toxins. His laboratory examines the mechanisms by which various proteins and toxins can interact with neuronal cell membranes, triggering cell death and degeneration. Current projects are focused on the role of amyloid forming proteins (from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and mad cow disease)in neuronal toxicity, and testing of possible interventions to prevent channel formation or to block channels once formed and thus ameliorate the cellular destruction caused by these toxins. |
