Our brains are metabolically vulnerable, as even brief interruptions in proper fueling lead to rapid degradation in cognitive performance. My lab identified presynaptic function as one of the likely loci of this vulnerability and has leveraged the sensitivity of synaptic vesicle recycling to metabolic compromise to dissect the molecular underpinnings of how local ATP production is balanced during electrical activity in axons. Our work has helped identify critical control points that in turn appear central to neurodegenerative diseases and offer new therapeutic approaches to neurodegeneration.

The Ryan laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine develops and applies quantitative methods to understand the molecular underpinnings of synapse function with a particular emphasis on the control of neurotransmitter release and the recycling of synaptic vesicles. The lab discovered that nerve terminals represent one of the critical loci of metabolic vulnerability in the brain which has led them to explore questions of how fuel availability and combustion is regulated to support synapse function.