Dr. Nguyen completed her Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and in Political Science from Hartwick College in 2014. She worked with Dr. John Bethea at Drexel University for her PhD in Biology studying pathophysiological sex differences in the progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and the contribution of tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFR2) signaling in neuroprotection. From this work, she found that both synaptic changes and immune response are sex-specific in EAE. Specifically, expression of pre- and post-synaptic associated proteins indicate a shift towards an excitatory profile in regions of the central nervous system (CNS) in a sexually dimorphic manner.
Research
Chronic pain is estimated to effect 1 in 5 individuals and with greater prevalence among females. Current availability of non-opioid based therapeutics that effectively treat pain are severely lacking and this is due to lack of knowledge regarding underlying mechanisms controlling pain in the context of both injury and disease. She is currently interested in further exploring sex-specific mechanisms of chronic pain in both disease and injury involving the CNS with a focus on neuronal and immune cell populations.
- Swanson KA*, Nguyen KL*, Gupta S, Ricard J, Bethea JR. TNFR1/p38?MAPK signaling in Nex+ supraspinal neurons regulates sex-specific chronic neuropathic pain. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2023 Aug 24:rs.3.rs-3273237. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3273237/v1. (*co-first authors)
- Bracchi-Ricard V, Nguyen K, Ricci D, Gaudette B, Henao-Mejia J, Brambilla R, Martynyuk T, Gidalevitz T, Allman D, Bethea JR, Argon Y. Increased activity of IRE1 improves the clinical presentation of EAE. FASEB J. 2023 Dec;37(12):e23283. doi: 10.1096/fj.202300769RR.
- Murphy KL, Fischer R, Swanson KA, Bhatt IJ, Oakley L, Smeyne R, Bracchi-Ricard V, Bethea JR. Synaptic alterations and immune response are sexually dimorphic in a non-pertussis toxin model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Exp Neurol. 2020 Jan;323:113061. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2019.113061.
- Fischer R, Padutsch T, Bracchi-Ricard V, Murphy KL, Martinez GF, Delguercio N, Elmer N, Sendetski M, Diem R, Eisel ULM, Smeyne RJ, Kontermann RE, Pfizenmaier K, Bethea JR. Exogenous activation of tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 promotes recovery from sensory and motor disease in a model of multiple sclerosis. Brain Behav Immun. 2019 Oct;81:247-259. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2019.06.021.
- Murphy KL, Bethea JR, Fischer R. Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis - Current Therapeutic Intervention and Future Treatment Perspectives. Multiple Sclerosis: Perspectives in Treatment and Pathogenesis. 2017 Nov 27. doi: 10.15586/codon.multiplesclerosis.2017.ch4.
- Murphy KL, Logsdon NJ, Sessions SK, Hecker L. Secreted Factor(s) from Young Cells Restores Susceptibility to Cell Death in Senescent Myofibroblasts. BIOS. 2014 December; 85(4):218. doi: 10.1893/0005-3155-85.4.218.