Dr. Kimberley Tolias is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. The Tolias laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms that govern neural circuit formation, plasticity, and repair in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). In particular, the lab investigates how synapses and neural circuits form, remodel, and adapt throughout life to support learning, memory, behavior, and recovery following injury. By combining molecular, cellular, genetic, and systems-level approaches, her lab seeks to uncover signaling pathways disrupted in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including chronic pain, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, and depression, and to leverage this knowledge to develop new therapeutic strategies for CNS injury and disease.
Research from the Tolias laboratory has provided fundamental insights into Rho GTPase signaling pathways that regulate synapse development and plasticity through control of cytoskeletal dynamics, as well as novel mechanisms that provide precise spatiotemporal regulation of Rho GTPase signaling in neurons and glia during CNS development. Her group has also identified important roles for the Adhesion-GPCR BAI1 in synapse and dendritic arbor development, defined functions for RhoA signaling in locomotor circuit assembly and cerebellar morphogenesis, and developed new approaches for preventing pathological synaptic remodeling caused by traumatic brain injury and radiation therapy. More recently, the laboratory has expanded into developing tools to identify synapses undergoing remodeling during learning or following injury, investigating mechanisms underlying chronic pain, opioid tolerance, and chronic pain-associated mood disorders, and exploring how the gut microbiome influences brain development, synaptic function, and behavior.
Dr. Tolias received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude. She earned her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School, where she trained in the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Cantley studying signaling pathways that regulate the actin cytoskeleton and cell morphogenesis. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training in neurobiology in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Greenberg at Harvard Medical School, where she investigated molecular mechanisms linking neural activity to synaptic development and plasticity. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Tolias served for nearly 20 years on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, where she was a tenured Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Her research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health and other major foundations and has been recognized by awards including the McKnight Memory and Cognitive Disorders Award and the NIH EUREKA Award.