Miguel Minaya
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
- Phone: 314-273-8145
- Email: miguel.minaya@nospam.wustl.edu
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral Research Associate: Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine, 2022
- Postdoctoral Fellow: Saint Louis University, 2019
- D.Sc.: Universidad Automoma de Madrid, 2015
Major Awards
- Early Career Reviewer program. NIH, This competitive program trains early-career scientists in peer review for NIH grant applications, 2024
- Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01), Molecular drivers of tauopathies in stem cell models from diverse human populations, 2023
- Butler-Williams Scholars Program. NIA, This competitive program trains researchers in aging and health disparities., 2023
- Knight ADRC REC, The competitive REC scholar program supports research training in aging and dementia studies, 2022
- Doctoral Student Research Award, This competitive research award by Spain’s Ministry of Science funds and supports PhD research, 2007
- Graduate Research Fellowship, This competitive fellowship trains graduate students for research under faculty guidance, 2005
- Undergraduate Research Award, This competitive research award at UAM, Spain, recognizes and funds outstanding student research, 2004
- The Undergraduate Fellowship, This fellowship by Spain’s Ministry of Science and Education funds and supports student research, 2000
Research Interests
My research primarily focuses on coupling stem cell modeling with genomic approaches to determine whether there is a common molecular mechanism that links the existence of certain MAPT mutations to the surge in tauopathies observed when they are present. To this end, I study transcriptomic profiles of iPSC-neurons, -astrocytes and -microglia carrying disease-related mutations and compare them to isogenic controls created using CRISPR/Cas9 protocols.
My long-term goal is to use ever more powerful novel approaches such as CRISPRi for multimodal genetic screening in human cell lines to understand more deeply the functions of several molecular drivers of disease and how to target these signatures to treat disease.
Recent Publications
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Developing Topics
Mirfakhar, F. S., Marsh, J., Minaya, M., Pak, S., Silverman, G., Perlmutter, D., Macauley, S. L. & Karch, C. M., Dec 1 2025, In: Alzheimer’s & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. 21, p. e108382
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A novel lncRNA FAM151B-DT regulates degradation of aggregation prone proteins
Renganathan, A., Minaya, M. A., Broder, M., Alfradique-Dunham, I., Miller, R. L., Dhavale, D. D., Moritz, M., Bhagat, R., Marsh, J., Verbeck, A., Galasso, G., Starr, E., Agard, D. A., Kotzbauer, P. T., Cruchaga, C. & Karch, C. M., Dec 2025, In: Molecular Psychiatry. 30, 12, p. 5637-5651 15 p.
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Cell autonomous microglia defects in a stem cell model of frontotemporal dementia tau
Iyer, A. K., Vermunt, L., Mirfakhar, F. S., Minaya, M., Acquarone, M., Koppisetti, R. K., Renganathan, A., You, S. F., Danhash, E. P., Schache, K. J., Verbeck, A., Galasso, G., Lee, S. M., Huang, G., Miller, K. J., Marsh, J., Nana, A. L., Spina, S., Seeley, W. W. & Grinberg, L. T. & 4 others, , Oct 2025, In: Molecular Psychiatry. 30, 10, p. 4776-4791 16 p.
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Somatic and Stem Cell Bank to study the contribution of African ancestry to dementia: African iPSC Initiative
Maina, M. B., Isah, M. B., Marsh, J. A., Muhammad, Z., Babazau, L., Idris, A. A., Aladyeva, E., Miller, N., Starr, E., Miller, K. J., Lee, S., Minaya, M., Wray, S., Harari, O., Goni, B. W., Serpell, L. C. & Karch, C. M., Apr 2025, In: Alzheimer’s and Dementia. 21, 4, e70145.
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Mutant tau and stress lead to downregulation of long noncoding RNA, SNHG8
Bhagat, R., Minaya, M. A., Renganathan, A., Mehra, M., Marsh, J., Martinez, R., Eteleeb, A. M., Nana, A. L., Spina, S., Seeley, W. W., Grinberg, L. T. & Karch, C. M., Nov 2023, In: Molecular Psychiatry. 28, 11, p. 4489 1 p.