Barbara Stopschinski, M.D.

Barbara Stopschinski, M.D., is originally from Essen in Germany. She graduated from Medical School at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany in 2010. During this time, she completed her medical thesis with a focus on actin nucleation at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, Germany. She then completed 4 years of residency training in neurology at the University Hospital in Aachen, Germany. She joined the Diamond laboratory in the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases here at UTSW as a postdoctoral fellow between 2015-2019, working on mechanisms of cellular tau uptake in tauopathies. She completed her residency in Neurology at UTSW in June 2023, and subsequently joined the faculty in July 2023 as Instructor and fellow in behavioral neurology. She has her own research laboratory with a focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms driving tau uptake and propagation, and the mechanisms connecting neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in tauopathies. Her research interests are directly connected with her clinical practice, where she treats patients with cognitive impairment and dementia such as Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Medical School

Ruhr University Bochum (2010), None

• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in tauopathies
• Cellular mechanisms of tau uptake and propagation
• The association between neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in tauopathies
• The impact of heparan sulfate proteoglycans on tau pathophysiology

Featured Publications

DnaJC7 specifically regulates tau seeding.

Perez VA, Sanders DW, Mendoza-Oliva A, Stopschinski BE, Mullapudi V, White CL, Joachimiak LA, Diamond MI, bioRxiv 2023 Mar

Microglia as a cellular target of diclofenac therapy in Alzheimer's disease.

Stopschinski BE, Weideman RA, McMahan D, Jacob DA, Little BB, Chiang HS, Saez Calveras N, Stuve O, Ther Adv Neurol Disord 2023 16 17562864231156674

Clinical Reasoning: A 59-Year-Old Man With Thymoma and Constitutional Symptoms, Seizures, and Multifocal CNS Lesions.

Stopschinski BE, Fredrich S, Vernino S, Phillips L, Blackburn KM, Neurology 2022 Sep

Cognitive Decline in Older People with Multiple Sclerosis-A Narrative Review of the Literature.

Chiang HS, Khera A, Stopschinski BE, Stuve O, Hart J, Kelley B, Nguyen T, Geriatrics (Basel) 2022 Jun 7 3

A synthetic heparinoid blocks Tau aggregate cell uptake and amplification.

Stopschinski BE, Thomas TL, Nadji S, Darvish E, Fan L, Holmes BB, Modi AR, Finnell JG, Kashmer OM, Estill-Terpack S, Mirbaha H, Luu HS, Diamond MI, J Biol Chem 2020 Mar 295 10 2974-2983

Specific glycosaminoglycan chain length and sulfation patterns are required for cell uptake of tau vs. a-synuclein and ?-amyloid aggregates.

Stopschinski BE, Holmes BB, Miller GM, Manon VA, Vaquer-Alicea J, Prueitt WL, Hsieh-Wilson LC, Diamond MI J. Biol. Chem. 2018 May

The prion model for progression and diversity of neurodegenerative diseases.

Stopschinski BE, Diamond MI Lancet Neurol 2017 Feb

Distribution of formins in cardiac muscle: FHOD1 is a component of intercalated discs and costameres.

Al Haj A, Mazur AJ, Radaszkiewicz K, Radaszkiewicz T, Makowiecka A, Stopschinski BE, Schönichen A, Geyer M, Mannherz HG Eur. J. Cell Biol. 2015 Feb 94 2 101-13

Glioblastoma cancer stem cells--from concept to clinical application.

Stopschinski BE, Beier CP, Beier D Cancer Lett. 2013 Sep 338 1 32-40

[The 'red puffy ear sign'--a clinical sign to diagnose a rare cause of meningoencephalitis].

Prinz S, Dafotakis M, Schneider RK, Mühlenbruch G, Stopschinski BE Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr 2012 Aug 80 8 463-7

• Alzheimer’s Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship Award
  3 years (2023)
• Aging Mind Fellow, The Aging Mind Foundation
  (2018-2020)
• Poster travel award for ANA meeting in 10/2018
  (2018)
• Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation Award in Alzheimer’s Disease
  (2017-2018)
• Scholarship Clinical Research Program, University Hospital Aachen, Germany
  (2015-2017)
• Scholarship, exchange program between the Université François-Rabelais de Tours, France and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
  (2006-2007)
• Scholar of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)
  (2004-2010)

• Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases (2023)
• Department of Neurology (2023)