Juliet Alice Moncaster, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Radiology

Juliet Moncaster
617.358.2811
670 Albany St Biosquare III

Biography

Research Interests:
Dr. Moncaster’s research focuses on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Down Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), Lens biology and Retinal neurobiology.

Background:
Dr Moncaster trained as a graduate student in retinal biology in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) under the mentorship of Drs Steve Gentleman and Ling-Sun Jen at Imperial College London, United Kingdom. She conducted her postdoctoral training in lens biology and AD first at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and then Boston University both under the mentorship of Dr Lee Goldstein. She is a primary contributor in the development, application, and testing of the first generation QLS instruments for non-invasive in vivo early detection and quantitative assessment of AD-associated molecular pathology in the lens of the eye (Moncaster et al., Exp. Eye Res. 2022). This technology is now FDA-approved and currently undergoing clinical evaluation. Dr Moncaster was the primary contributor to the discovery of the cause of cataracts in Down syndrome (Moncaster, PloS One, 2010), which established the molecular linkage between Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the lens and brain that affects individuals with Down syndrome. She made major contributions to the discovery and biological validation of a new gene (CTNND2) linked to Alzheimer’s disease (Jun, PloS One, 2012). Dr Moncaster also played a key role in the discovery of a tau protein-linked neurodegenerative disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in U.S. military veterans exposed to explosive blast during deployment and sport-related traumatic brain injuries (Goldstein et al., Science Trans Med, 2012; Kondo et al., Nature 2015; Tagge et al., Brain 2018).

Awards and Memberships:
Dr Moncaster have been awarded the Mysell Research Award (Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School), the Research Excellence Award (Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School), and 2nd Prize for Translational Research from the NIH-funded Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI), BU.
Dr Moncaster is a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO); International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART), Alzheimer’s Association.

Education

  • Imperial College London, PhD
  • University of Sheffield, BSc

Publications

  • Published on 2/2/2024

    Sarangi S, Minaeva O, Ledoux DM, Parsons DS, Moncaster JA, Black CA, Hollander J, Tripodis Y, Clark JI, Hunter DG, Goldstein LE. In vivo quasi-elastic light scattering detects molecular changes in the lenses of adolescents with Down syndrome. Exp Eye Res. 2024 Feb 02; 241:109818. PMID: 38422787.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 9/20/2022

    Hua N, Minaeva O, Lupoli N, Franz ES, Liu X, Moncaster JA, Babcock KJ, Jara H, Tripodis Y, Guermazi A, Soto JA, Anderson SW, Goldstein LE. Gadolinium Deposition in the Rat Brain Measured with Quantitative MRI versus Elemental Mass Spectrometry. Radiology. 2023 Jan; 306(1):244-251. PMID: 36125373.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 2/21/2022

    Moncaster JA, Moir RD, Burton MA, Chadwick O, Minaeva O, Alvarez VE, Ericsson M, Clark JI, McKee AC, Tanzi RE, Goldstein LE. Alzheimer's disease amyloid-ß pathology in the lens of the eye. Exp Eye Res. 2022 Aug; 221:108974. PMID: 35202705.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 2/22/2021

    Miry O, Zhang XL, Vose LR, Gopaul KR, Subah G, Moncaster JA, Wojnarowicz MW, Fisher AM, Tagge CA, Goldstein LE, Stanton PK. Life-long brain compensatory responses to galactic cosmic radiation exposure. Sci Rep. 2021 02 22; 11(1):4292. PMID: 33619310.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 9/16/2020

    Minaeva O, Sarangi S, Ledoux DM, Moncaster JA, Parsons DS, Washicosky KJ, Black CA, Weng FJ, Ericsson M, Moir RD, Tripodis Y, Clark JI, Tanzi RE, Hunter DG, Goldstein LE. In Vivo Quasi-Elastic Light Scattering Eye Scanner Detects Molecular Aging in Humans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 09 16; 75(9):e53-e62. PMID: 32515825.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 12/16/2019

    Cheng C, Parreno J, Nowak RB, Biswas SK, Wang K, Hoshino M, Uesugi K, Yagi N, Moncaster JA, Lo WK, Pierscionek B, Fowler VM. Age-related changes in eye lens biomechanics, morphology, refractive index and transparency. Aging (Albany NY). 2019 12 16; 11(24):12497-12531. PMID: 31844034.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 11/26/2019

    Minaeva O, Hua N, Franz ES, Lupoli N, Mian AZ, Farris CW, Hildebrandt AM, Kiernan PT, Evers LE, Griffin AD, Liu X, Chancellor SE, Babcock KJ, Moncaster JA, Jara H, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Guermazi A, Latour LL, McKee AC, Soto JA, Anderson SW, Goldstein LE. Nonhomogeneous Gadolinium Retention in the Cerebral Cortex after Intravenous Administration of Gadolinium-based Contrast Agent in Rats and Humans. Radiology. 2020 02; 294(2):377-385. PMID: 31769744.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 2/1/2018

    Tagge CA, Fisher AM, Minaeva OV, Gaudreau-Balderrama A, Moncaster JA, Zhang XL, Wojnarowicz MW, Casey N, Lu H, Kokiko-Cochran ON, Saman S, Ericsson M, Onos KD, Veksler R, Senatorov VV, Kondo A, Zhou XZ, Miry O, Vose LR, Gopaul KR, Upreti C, Nowinski CJ, Cantu RC, Alvarez VE, Hildebrandt AM, Franz ES, Konrad J, Hamilton JA, Hua N, Tripodis Y, Anderson AT, Howell GR, Kaufer D, Hall GF, Lu KP, Ransohoff RM, Cleveland RO, Kowall NW, Stein TD, Lamb BT, Huber BR, Moss WC, Friedman A, Stanton PK, McKee AC, Goldstein LE. Concussion, microvascular injury, and early tauopathy in young athletes after impact head injury and an impact concussion mouse model. Brain. 2018 02 01; 141(2):422-458. PMID: 29360998.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 7/15/2015

    Kondo A, Shahpasand K, Mannix R, Qiu J, Moncaster J, Chen CH, Yao Y, Lin YM, Driver JA, Sun Y, Wei S, Luo ML, Albayram O, Huang P, Rotenberg A, Ryo A, Goldstein LE, Pascual-Leone A, McKee AC, Meehan W, Zhou XZ, Lu KP. Antibody against early driver of neurodegeneration cis P-tau blocks brain injury and tauopathy. Nature. 2015 Jul 23; 523(7561):431-6. PMID: 26176913.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 3/10/2015

    Suh J, Moncaster JA, Wang L, Hafeez I, Herz J, Tanzi RE, Goldstein LE, Guénette SY. FE65 and FE65L1 amyloid precursor protein-binding protein compound null mice display adult-onset cataract and muscle weakness. FASEB J. 2015 Jun; 29(6):2628-39. PMID: 25757569.

    Read at: PubMed

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