Tara Barron, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Pathology Biography Dr. Barron earned her Ph.D. from UT Health San Antonio, where she completed her dissertation on electrophysiological implications of neuron-glial interactions. She subsequently underwent postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where she studied neuron-to-glioma synaptic communication. Dr. Barron is currently a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar in Cancer Research and Assistant Professor in the Pathology Department at UT Southwestern. The Barron lab applies the tools of cellular and synaptic neurophysiology to understand how cancer disrupts neural circuit function and hijacks mechanisms of neural activity to promote tumor growth. Research Interest Cancer neuroscience Glial biology Glioma biology Neurophysiology Publications Featured Publications GABAergic neuron-to-glioma synapses in diffuse midline gliomas. Barron T, Yalçin B, Su M, Byun YG, Gavish A, Shamardani K, Xu H, Ni L, Soni N, Mehta V, Maleki Jahan S, Kim YS, Taylor KR, Keough MB, Quezada MA, Geraghty AC, Mancusi R, Vo LT, Castañeda EH, Woo PJ, Petritsch CK, Vogel H, Kaila K, Monje M, Nature 2025 Feb GABAergic neuronal lineage development determines clinically actionable targets in diffuse hemispheric glioma, H3G34-mutant. Liu I, Alencastro Veiga Cruzeiro G, Bjerke L, Rogers RF, Grabovska Y, Beck A, Mackay A, Barron T, Hack OA, Quezada MA, Molinari V, Shaw ML, Perez-Somarriba M, Temelso S, Raynaud F, Ruddle R, Panditharatna E, Englinger B, Mire HM, Jiang L, Nascimento A, LaBelle J, Haase R, Rozowsky J, Neyazi S, Baumgartner AC, Castellani S, Hoffman SE, Cameron A, Morrow M, Nguyen QD, Pericoli G, Madlener S, Mayr L, Dorfer C, Geyeregger R, Rota C, Ricken G, Ligon KL, Alexandrescu S, Cartaxo RT, Lau B, Uphadhyaya S, Koschmann C, Braun E, Danan-Gotthold M, Hu L, Siletti K, Sundström E, Hodge R, Lein E, Agnihotri S, Eisenstat DD, Stapleton S, King A, Bleil C, Mastronuzzi A, Cole KA, Waanders AJ, Montero Carcaboso A, Schüller U, Hargrave D, Vinci M, Carceller F, Haberler C, Slavc I, Linnarsson S, Gojo J, Monje M, Jones C, Filbin MG, Cancer Cell 2024 Aug CHD2 Regulates Neuron-glioma Interactions in Pediatric Glioma. Zhang X, Duan S, Apostolou PE, Wu X, Watanabe J, Gallitto M, Barron T, Taylor KR, Woo PJ, Hua X, Zhou H, Wei HJ, McQuillan N, Kang KD, Friedman GK, Canoll PD, Chang K, Wu CC, Hashizume R, Vakoc CR, Monje M, McKhann GM, Gogos JA, Zhang Z, Cancer Discov 2024 May A road map for the treatment of pediatric diffuse midline glioma. Koschmann C, Al-Holou WN, Alonso MM, Anastas J, Bandopadhayay P, Barron T, Becher O, Cartaxo R, Castro MG, Chung C, Clausen M, Dang D, Doherty R, Duchatel R, Dun M, Filbin M, Franson A, Galban S, Garcia Moure M, Garton H, Gowda P, Marques JG, Hawkins C, Heath A, Hulleman E, Ji S, Jones C, Kilburn L, Kline C, Koldobskiy MA, Lim D, Lowenstein PR, Lu QR, Lum J, Mack S, Magge S, Marini B, Martin D, Marupudi N, Messinger D, Mody R, Morgan M, Mota M, Muraszko K, Mueller S, Natarajan SK, Nazarian J, Niculcea M, Nuechterlein N, Okada H, Opipari V, Pai MP, Pal S, Peterson E, Phoenix T, Prensner JR, Pun M, Raju GP, Reitman ZJ, Resnick A, Rogawski D, Saratsis A, Sbergio SG, Souweidane M, Stafford JM, Tzaridis T, Venkataraman S, Vittorio O, Wadden J, Wahl D, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Yadav VN, Zhang X, Zhang Q, Venneti S, Cancer Cell 2024 Jan 42 1 1-5 Glioma synapses recruit mechanisms of adaptive plasticity. Taylor KR, Barron T, Hui A, Spitzer A, Yalçin B, Ivec AE, Geraghty AC, Hartmann GG, Arzt M, Gillespie SM, Kim YS, Maleki Jahan S, Zhang H, Shamardani K, Su M, Ni L, Du PP, Woo PJ, Silva-Torres A, Venkatesh HS, Mancusi R, Ponnuswami A, Mulinyawe S, Keough MB, Chau I, Aziz-Bose R, Tirosh I, Suvà ML, Monje M, Nature 2023 Nov 623 7986 366-374 NF1 mutation drives neuronal activity-dependent initiation of optic glioma. Pan Y, Hysinger JD, Barron T, Schindler NF, Cobb O, Guo X, Yalçin B, Anastasaki C, Mulinyawe SB, Ponnuswami A, Scheaffer S, Ma Y, Chang KC, Xia X, Toonen JA, Lennon JJ, Gibson EM, Huguenard JR, Liau LM, Goldberg JL, Monje M, Gutmann DH, Nature 2021 Jun 594 7862 277-282 Preterm Birth Impedes Structural and Functional Development of Cerebellar Purkinje Cells in the Developing Baboon Cerebellum. Barron T, Kim JH, Brain Sci 2020 Nov 10 12 Neuronal input triggers Ca2+ influx through AMPA receptors and voltage-gated Ca2+ channels in oligodendrocytes. Barron T, Kim JH, Glia 2019 Oct 67 10 1922-1932 Myelination of Purkinje axons is critical for resilient synaptic transmission in the deep cerebellar nucleus. Barron T, Saifetiarova J, Bhat MA, Kim JH Sci Rep 2018 Jan 8 1 1022 Oligodendroglial excitability mediated by glutamatergic inputs and Nav1.2 activation. Berret E, Barron T, Xu J, Debner E, Kim EJ, Kim JH Nat Commun 2017 Sep 8 1 557 Results 1-10 of 10 1 Honors & Awards Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar (2026) ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation Fellow (2021-2022)
