Marcia Ratner, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics

Research Interests

Dr. Ratner’s research is focused on interdisciplinary investigations looking at the effects of neurotoxicants and drugs on the subclinical progression and onset of age-related neurodegenerative diseases associated with learning and memory deficits such as Alzheimer’s disease and age-related mild cognitive impairment.  Her interdisciplinary translational approach to understanding the role of chemicals in neurodegenerative disease onset and progression is reflected in her publication history and her NIH iCite translation score.  She collaborates with the Department Chairman, Dr. David Farb, in the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology.  She is using basic behavioral and in vivo electrophysiological techniques in her preclinical studies of how chemicals (drugs and neurotoxicants) modulate neural network activity in wild type and transgenic rat models of age-related neurodegenerative disease (Hippocampus, 2015; Heliyon, 2021).  Dr. Ratner is the only board-certified toxicologist listed on Google Scholar who is also an expert in the use of in vivo electrophysiology as a preclinical research tool.   Her work has played a key role in promoting and advancing the use of in vivo electrophysiology as an applied science in preclinical neurotoxicology research (Frontiers in Toxicology, 2022).  She also collaborates with several clinical colleagues to bring her observations from the bench to the clinic (AJIM, 2018; JOEM, 2019; Toxicol Comm, 2020; AJIM, 2021;  Neuroimmunology Reports, 2022).

Websites

Lab Page
BU Profile
Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics