Aaron Bowman

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Aaron Bowman is Professor and Head of the School of Health Sciences and member of the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience (PIIN). His lab utilizes a combined approach of molecular genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, cell and developmental biology to understand the role of gene-environment interactions between metal exposure and neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease and Huntington's Disease. The lab employs a diverse range of model systems including patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), neuronal cultures and mouse models. The lab aims to define mechanisms of neuronal dysfunction and understand the basis of selective neuropathology, by characterizing the molecular function of disease genes and their interaction with environmental toxicants under both normal and pathological conditions. The lab has been applying iPSC technology to neurotoxicity research for 13+ years, and has established protocols to generate iPSC lines and differentiate them down forebrain, striatal and midbrain neural lineages. The lab applies toxicological and functional approaches, in addition to novel high-throughput screening and high-content approaches. The long-term goal is to use a personalized medicine approach to investigate patient-specific toxicant vulnerabilities and develop neuroprotective strategies that mitigate neurological diseases with environmental etiologies.

Selected Publications:

Horning KJ, Joshi P, Nitin R, Balachandran RC, Yanko FM, Kim K, Christov P, Aschner M, Sulikowski GA, Weaver CD, Bowman AB. Identification of a selective manganese ionophore that enables nonlethal quantification of cellular manganese. J Biol Chem. 2020 Mar 20;295(12):3875-3890. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.009781. Epub 2020 Feb 11. PubMed PMID: 32047113; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7086026

Bryan MR, Nordham KD, Rose DIR, O'Brien MT, Joshi P, Foshage AM, Gonçalves FM, Nitin R, Uhouse MA, Aschner M, Bowman AB. Manganese Acts upon Insulin/IGF Receptors to Phosphorylate AKT and Increase Glucose Uptake in Huntington's Disease Cells. Mol Neurobiol. 2019 Dec 4;. doi: 10.1007/s12035-019-01824-1. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31797328

Joshi P, Bodnya C, Ilieva I, Neely MD, Aschner M, Bowman AB. Huntington's disease associated resistance to Mn neurotoxicity is neurodevelopmental stage and neuronal lineage dependent. Neurotoxicology. 2019 Dec; 75:148-157. doi: 10.1016/j.neuro.2019.09.007. Epub 2019 Sep 20. PubMed PMID: 31545971

Bryan MR, O'Brien MT, Nordham KD, Rose DIR, Foshage AM, Joshi P, Nitin R, Uhouse MA, Di Pardo A, Zhang Z, Maglione V, Aschner M, Bowman AB. Acute manganese treatment restores defective autophagic cargo loading in Huntington's disease cell lines. Hum Mol Genet. 2019 Nov 15;28(22):3825-3841. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddz209. PubMed PMID: 31600787.

Neely MD, Davison CA, Aschner M, Bowman AB. From the cover: Manganese and rotenone-induced oxidative stress signatures differ in iPSC-derived human dopamine neurons. 2017. Toxicological Sciences. 159(2):366-379.

Bichell TJ, Wegrzynowicz M, Grace Tipps K, Bradley EM, Uhouse MA, Bryan M, Horning K, Fisher N, Dudek K, Halbesma T, Umashanker P, Stubbs AD, Holt HK, Kwakye GF, Tidball AM, Colbran RJ, Aschner M, Diana Neely M, Di Pardo A, Maglione V, Osmand A, Bowman AB. Reduced bioavailable manganese causes striatal urea cycle pathology in Huntington's disease mouse model. 2017. Biochim Biophys Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease. 1863(6):1596-1604. PMC5515276 Complete list: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/aaron.bowman.1/bibliography/public/

Neely MD, Davison CA, Aschner M, Bowman AB. From the cover: Manganese and rotenone-induced oxidative stress signatures differ in iPSC-derived human dopamine neurons. 2017. Toxicological Sciences. 159(2):366-379.

Bryan MR, Uhouse MA, Nordham KD, Joshi P, Rose DIR, O'Brien MT, Aschner A, Bowman AB. Phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) modulates manganese homeostasis and manganese-induced cell signaling in a murine striatal cell line. 2017. NeuroToxicology. 159(2):366-379.

Bichell TJ, Wegrzynowicz M, Grace Tipps K, Bradley EM, Uhouse MA, Bryan M, Horning K, Fisher N, Dudek K, Halbesma T, Umashanker P, Stubbs AD, Holt HK, Kwakye GF, Tidball AM, Colbran RJ, Aschner M, Diana Neely M, Di Pardo A, Maglione V, Osmand A, Bowman AB. Reduced bioavailable manganese causes striatal urea cycle pathology in Huntington's disease mouse model. 2017. Biochim Biophys Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease. 1863(6):1596-1604. PMC5515276

Ruszkiewicz JA, Bowman AB, Farina M, Rocha JB, Aschner M. Sex- and structure-specific differences in antioxidant responses to methylmercury during early development. 2016. Neurotoxicology. 56:118-126.

Tidball AM, Neely MD, Chamberlin R, Aboud AA, Kumar KK, Han B, Bryan MR, Aschner M, Ess KC, Bowman AB. Genomic Instability Associated with p53 Knockdown in the Generation of Huntington's Disease Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. 2016. PLoS One. 11(3): e0150372. PMC4794230.

Complete list: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/40688189/?sort=date&direction=descending