Ryan Ash, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

FUS has high spatial resolution (up to ~1 mm) that can be shaped to the target structure, can modulate neural activity through its impact on mechanosensitive ion channels, and can target biopharmaceuticals into the brain. My lab is currently advancing early-stage in-human studies using the visual system as a test-bed to optimize FUS neuromodulation, and we are organizing early-stage FUS clinical trials to ameliorate insistence on sameness symptoms in autism. Moreover, in preclinical models we use FUS-targeted biopharmaceuticals to modulate synaptic stability and normalize behavioral inflexibility in psychiatric disorders, in tandem with radiotracer-conjugated engineered antibodies to quantify synaptic stability with immuno-PET/SPECT. This work is among the first attempts to pursue theranostics-inspired approaches for plasticity-rebalancing treatment in severe psychiatric illness. I have a K08 career development award, a SFARI Fellows-to-Faculty award, Deeda Blair Initiative award, BBRF Young Investigator award, and start-up funds to support these projects. I have more than a year of silent retreat experience in the Vipassana meditation tradition. My clinical practice specialization is in functional neurological disorder, and I am interested in implementing psychedelic psychotherapy in this patient population.

• Motor training improves coordination and anxiety in symptomatic Mecp2-null mice despite impaired functional connectivity within the motor circuit.
  Science advances 2021 Yue Y, Xu P, Liu Z, Sun X, Su J, Du H, Chen L, Ash RT, Smirnakis S, Simha R, Kusner L, Zeng C, Lu H
• Inhibition of Elevated Ras-MAPK Signaling Normalizes Enhanced Motor Learning and Excessive Clustered Dendritic Spine Stabilization in the MECP2-Duplication Syndrome Mouse Model of Autism.
  eNeuro 2021 Ash RT, Buffington SA, Park J, Suter B, Costa-Mattioli M, Zoghbi HY, Smirnakis SM
• Excessive Formation and Stabilization of Dendritic Spine Clusters in the MECP2-Duplication Syndrome Mouse Model of Autism.
  eNeuro 2021 Ash RT, Park J, Suter B, Zoghbi HY, Smirnakis SM
• Contribution of apical and basal dendrites to orientation encoding in mouse V1 L2/3 pyramidal neurons.
  Nature communications 2019 Park J, Papoutsi A, Ash RT, Marin MA, Poirazi P, Smirnakis SM
• Increased Axonal Bouton Stability during Learning in the Mouse Model of MECP2 Duplication Syndrome.
  eNeuro 2018 Ash RT, Fahey PG, Park J, Zoghbi HY, Smirnakis SM
• Loss and Gain of MeCP2 Cause Similar Hippocampal Circuit Dysfunction that Is Rescued by Deep Brain Stimulation in a Rett Syndrome Mouse Model.
  Neuron 2016 Lu H, Ash RT, He L, Kee SE, Wang W, Yu D, Hao S, Meng X, Ure K, Ito-Ishida A, Tang B, Sun Y, Ji D, Tang J, Arenkiel BR, Smirnakis SM, Zoghbi HY
• Dynamic control of excitatory synapse development by a Rac1 GEF/GAP regulatory complex.
  Developmental cell 2014 Um K, Niu S, Duman JG, Cheng JX, Tu YK, Schwechter B, Liu F, Hiles L, Narayanan AS, Ash RT, Mulherkar S, Alpadi K, Smirnakis SM, Tolias KF
• Dendritic arborization and spine dynamics are abnormal in the mouse model of MECP2 duplication syndrome.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2013 Jiang M, Ash RT, Baker SA, Suter B, Ferguson A, Park J, Rudy J, Torsky SP, Chao HT, Zoghbi HY, Smirnakis SM
• Viral transduction of the neonatal brain delivers controllable genetic mosaicism for visualising and manipulating neuronal circuits in vivo.
  The European journal of neuroscience 2013 Kim JY, Ash RT, Ceballos-Diaz C, Levites Y, Golde TE, Smirnakis SM, Jankowsky JL