Oscar Mendez

I graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2012 and worked in the lab of Aileen Anderson before joining the Neuroscience program at the University of Arizona in 2014. I joined the Koshy lab in spring 2015.

Research Summary

My graduate project entails defining the regions of the brain that are most susceptible to Toxoplasma infection, the neuron subtypes that are targeted by Toxoplasma, and how Toxoplasma effector proteins alter neuron physiology in vivo.

Publications

Mendez, O. A., Potter, C. J., Valdez, M., Bello, T., Trouard, T. P., & Koshy, A. A. (2018). Semiautomated quantification and neuroanatomical mapping of heterogeneous cell populations. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 305, 98-104.

Mendez, O. A., & Koshy, A. A. (2017). Toxoplasma gondii: Entry, association, and physiological influence on the central nervous system. PLoS Pathogens, 13(7), e1006351.

Peterson, S. L., Nguyen, H. X., Mendez, O. A., & Anderson, A. J. (2017). Complement Protein C3 Suppresses Axon Growth and Promotes Neuron Loss. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 12904.

Peterson, S. L., Nguyen, H. X., Mendez, O. A., & Anderson, A. J. (2015). Complement protein C1q modulates neurite outgrowth in vitro and spinal cord axon regeneration in vivo. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(10), 4332-4349.