Lori L. McMahon, PhD

Administrative Accomplishments 

Institutional leadership roles at three academic medical centers have strengthened my organizational, communication, collaborative, and fiscal management skills needed to serve in a leadership role within the Society for Neuroscience. Responsibilities include providing strategic direction, collaboration with senior university leadership, and managing a multimillion-dollar budget.

University of Virginia (2024-present) Professor of Neuroscience and Vice-President for Research

• Responsible for the strategic direction of research across 10 Schools at UVA with a sponsored research portfolio of $571M and research expenditures of $813M in 2024. Oversight of all federal regulations including the Office of Sponsored Programs, IACUC, IRB, Institutional Biosafety, Environmental Health and Safety, Research Security, and Center for Comparative Medicine with 8 vivaria. The UVA Brain Institute and the UVA Environmental Institute are under the umbrella of the Office of the Vice-President for Research.

Medical University of South Carolina (2021-2024) Professor of Neuroscience and Vice-President for Research

• Responsible for all aspects of research across the enterprise, with a sponsored research portfolio of nearly $350M in 2024. Oversight of all federal regulations and compliance including the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, IACUC, IRB, Institutional Biosafety, Office of Clinical Research, and others. Mission is to grow research across the translational spectrum at MUSC in the College of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Health Professions.

University of Alabama at Birmingham (1998-2021) Endowed Professor of Neuroscience and Graduate Dean Emeritus

• Director (inaugural), UAB Graduate Biomedical Sciences Neuroscience Theme Graduate Program (2006-2012). Responsible for curriculum development, recruitment and retention, and oversight of approximately 60-65 PhD students enrolled each academic year.

• Director, UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (2012-2019). Responsible for integrating the UAB-wide neuroscience community with a strong mission to accelerate discovery by promoting excellence in basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience research, education, and clinical care. The CNC is the epicenter for the UAB Neurosciences with 200+ faculty from 9 schools and 34 departments and an email list serving 467 individuals. The CNC sponsored numerous symposia, retreats, grant writing workshops, and training activities for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. The CNC was also extremely active with outreach activities, hosting Neuroscience Café 3 times per month at local public libraries and spoke to an audience of more than 2,500 people from the community over a 4 year period.

• Dean, UAB Graduate School (2015-2021). Oversaw 140 masters and doctoral programs, with over 8,000 students. Managed a large budget, graduate student applications, admissions, and award of degree, regional accreditation, program review, mentor training for faculty. Implemented numerous new graduate programs, including a new PhD program in Neuroengineering.

• Co-Director, NINDS R25 Roadmap Scholars program focused on increasing diversity in the Neuroscience workforce (2015-2021). At steady-state, this program had 34 neuroscience PhD students from under-represented backgrounds enrolled.

Current Position(s) at Your Current Institution

• Vice-President for Research
  Professor of Neuroscience
  University of Virginia

Degree, Institute, Year Earned

Research Areas

• Synaptic plasticity mechanisms in health and disease (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, depression)
• Striatal plasticity in models of dystonia and Parkinson’s disease
• Impact of ovarian hormone loss in aging, neurodegeneration and depression on hippocampal plasticity and learning and memory
• Cholinergic and Noradrenergic mechanisms
• Protein O-GlcNAcylatino and modulation of synaptic function and behavior

Memberships & Service

Service Positions

Editorial Boards:

Other Service Positions:

Science Biography

The McMahon lab has been investigating various mechanisms that modulate synaptic function and plasticity in rodent models over the lifespan in health and disease for 25+ years. Dr. McMahon is an expert synaptic physiologist and her lab uses electrophysiological approaches to measure cell excitability, synaptic transmission and plasticity. She has published studies in all areas of hippocampus, cortex, striatum, and amygdala. A recent focus is the noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus. Her lab also has extensive expertise in protein measurement, immunohistochemical staining and confocal imaging, and behavioral assays that complement the synaptic physiology. She is a passionate educator and mentor, and was awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding Mentor Award during her tenure at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. McMahon has a long-standing interest in how hippocampal synapses are modulated by cholinergic and noradrenergic systems and how their degeneration in disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease, impact synaptic function and learning and memory. Currently her lab is focused on the earliest changes in synaptic transmission in AD using the TgF344-AD rat model of AD, the most comprehensive preclinical AD model to date. Her lab reported that loss of NA innervation early in AD is linked with increased β-AR function in the dentate gyrus that causes heightened LTP magnitude and facilitates novel object recognition and maintenance of fear extinction. Interestingly, her lab reported opposite effects in the basal lateral amygdala, where there is a loss of LTP in TgF344-AD rats that is accompanied by a deficit in cue dependent fear extinction following a robust training paradigm. In new studies, they are examining excitability of noradrenergic neurons and synaptic changes linked with pTau accumulation in the locus coeruleus in vitro and in vivo during behavior. Importantly, Dr. McMahon is using her long-standing expertise in investigating the impact of ovarian hormone loss on synaptic function and learning in AD, given the increased AD risk for women. Very little is known regarding how ovarian hormone loss impacts noradrenergic neurons and how this is complicated by progressive AD pathology.

The McMahon lab has been at the forefront in understanding how the post-translational modification, O-GlcNAcylation, modulates synaptic function in hippocampus. O-GlcNAcylation is a ubiquitous, tightly regulated post-translational modification analogous to phosphorylation. A majority of studies in the nervous system have focused on the relationship between decreased O-GlcNAcylation and hyperphosphorylation of tau in AD. The lab is investigating the potential beneficial effects of increasing protein O-GlcNAcylatin in TgF344-AD rats with a focus on astrocytes and microglia. In fundamental basic science research the lab has reported a novel form of LTD at CA3-CA1 synapses that requires O-GlcNAc modification of GluA2 containing AMPARs. They have also shown that increasing O-GlcNAc dampens hyperexcitability under epileptic conditions. They have reported that increasing O-GlcNAc depresses GABA_AR mediated transmission. In recent studies, the lab is investigating how increasing O-GlcNAc modulates the efficacy of neurosteroids in modulating GABA_AR currents.

The full CV for this candidate can be found within the ballot.