Amanda Woerman

Key facts

• She holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine from George Washington University (2013) and in early 2019 was Assistant Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, working in the Prusiner laboratory on protein misfolding in frontotemporal dementias and MSA.
• She was first author of a 2015 PNAS paper on propagation of synucleinopathy prions in cultured cells and second author of a 2015 PNAS paper, led by Prusiner, reporting that all 14 MSA brain samples tested transmitted disease to mice and cells while 6 Parkinson disease samples did not.
• With Kurt Giles and Prusiner she co-wrote a 2017 Cold Spring Harbor review on prion bioassays and inactivation, and a 2017 Acta Neuropathologica paper reported that MSA prions are highly stable and resist inactivation.
• She joined the UMass Amherst Biology Department in fall 2019 with a plan to build assays that tell apart disease causing alpha-synuclein and tau strains; UMass Amherst is her main affiliation on 2021 and 2022 papers.
• A March 2024 seminar listing and a May 2024 Trends in Neurosciences review place her at the Colorado State Prion Research Center; the review, written with Jason Bartz, applies PrP prion knowledge to host and strain factors in alpha-synuclein prion disease.
• The Prion Research Center page lists her among its faculty, and a Colorado State affiliation search notes that her alpha-synuclein and tau strain papers carry the center affiliation.
• In 2022 she and Gultekin Tamguney published a review proposing that body-first Parkinson disease and variant CJD both begin in the gut and reach the brain through the autonomic nervous system.
• Her February 2026 PLoS Pathogens review with Bartz describes prion strain mixtures as competing, independent or colluding, notes Type 1 and Type 2 mixtures in up to 40 percent of tested sporadic CJD cases, and argues every prion therapy, including substrate lowering, should be checked for its effect on strain dynamics.
• A November 2025 Acta Neuropathologica paper from her lab with Bartz found that two alpha-synuclein strains given together shortened disease onset in mice, an example of strain collusion.
• A May 2026 Colorado State profile says her lab is building a platform to run a panel of strain tests on a patient sample to suggest the likely disease and matching intervention; it does not mention CJD.

Timeline

1. 2013PhD in Molecular Medicine, George Washington University.
2. 2015First author PNAS paper on synucleinopathy prions in cultured cells; 2015-08-31 PNAS paper on MSA alpha-synuclein prions with Prusiner.
3. 2019UMass Amherst announces she will join its Biology Department in fall 2019, while still Assistant Adjunct Professor at the UCSF IND.
4. 2022Review with Tamguney comparing body-first Parkinson disease and variant CJD.
5. 2024Seminar at Dartmouth as Associate Professor, Prion Research Center, Colorado State University.
6. 2024Trends in Neurosciences review with Bartz on host and strain factors in alpha-synuclein prion disease, Colorado State affiliation.
7. 2025Acta Neuropathologica paper on co-infection with two alpha-synuclein strains.
8. 2026PLoS Pathogens review with Bartz on prion strain mixtures.
9. 2026Colorado State profile as associate professor.