Nicola Allen is associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, US). She is co-leading the Neuroimmunology Initiative at Salk’s NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis.

Allen received her PhD from University College London (UK) studying neuronal responses to ischemia, and performed postdoctoral research at Stanford University (US), where she identified how astrocytes induce synapse formation via the release of specific secreted proteins. Allen established her lab at the Salk Institute in 2012. She has been recognized with a number of prestigious awards, including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and a Career Accelerator Award from CZI, and was named a Pew Scholar and Ellison Scholar in Aging.

Research in the Allen lab investigates how astrocytes, a type of glial cell present throughout the brain, regulate neuronal synapse number and synaptic function across the lifespan in health and disease. The lab has discovered numerous astrocyte-secreted proteins that instruct synapse formation, maturation and stabilization. Further, they have found that dysregulation of astrocyte protein secretion occurs in neurological disorders, including genetic neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as disorders of aging including Alzheimer’s disease. Allen and her lab are using this knowledge of astrocytes to repair synapses when they are dysfunctional in neurological disorders.