Timothy Jarome
2150 Litton-Reaves Hall
175 West Campus Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
I was an undergraduate at Kent State University, where I received a BA in Psychology in 2006 while studying mechanisms of learning in rodents under the guidance of Dr. David Riccio. I did my graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, working in the behavioral neuroscience laboratory of Dr. Fred Helmstetter. It was there that I became interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of memory formation and modification that characterize much of my research today. In 2013 I became a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Farah Lubin’s laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where I began to study epigenetic mechanisms of memory formation. It is a combination of training that I received from these labs that have influenced my current research program. I joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 2018, where I established my lab examining the cellular, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of memory formation and modification and age-related memory decline in neurons.
- Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Neurobiology, 2013-2017
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Neuroscience, 2013
- M.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Neuroscience, 2010
- B.A., Kent State University, Psychology, 2006
- 2013 – American Federation for Aging Research, Glenn/AFAR Postdoctoral Fellowship for Translational Research on Aging.
- 2012 – American Psychological Foundation, Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Research Award
- 2010 – National Institute of Health, Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral National Research Service Award (F31 – NRSA)
Research in the Jarome lab is focused on elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of memory formation and storage, with an emphasis on understanding how stressful or traumatic events alters brain chemistry that drives future behavioral and physiological responses. These future responses are often maladaptive, resulting in a variety health concerns, and can be passed to future generations through “epigenetic” mechanisms. The lab focuses on mechanisms of initial memory storage and those involved in memory modification following retrieval (recall). Currently, the lab has several areas of interest:
- An epigenetic role for the ubiquitin-proteasome system in fear memory formation
- Epigenetic mechanisms of fear memory modification following retrieval
To address these topics, we combine a traditional rodent behavioral paradigm (Pavlovian fear conditioning) with a variety of traditional and modern molecular biology and neuroscience techniques. This includes using in vivo pharmacology, siRNA-mediated gene knockdown, and CRIPSR-dCas9 transcriptional editing to manipulate specific genes and/or cellular processes during learning or memory retrieval and analyzing the effects of these manipulations on the cellular memory storage process using western blotting, qRT-PCR, chromatin immunoprecipitation, methylated DNA immunoprecipitation, bisulfite sequencing and other molecular biology methods. Students who join the lab will have the opportunity to learn these techniques and, as they advance, will have the opportunity to take projects in new directions or initiate new topics.
*Prospective students interested in joining the lab should contact Dr. Jarome by email.*
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Virginia Tech researchers discover a new role for a protein that helps form memories , articleResearchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have discovered a new function for a common protein in the brain. Their findings, published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience, hold promising implications for the treatment of memory loss and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Timothy Jarome receives Virginia’s highest faculty honor , articleJarome, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' School of Animal Sciences, explores the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Virginia Tech researcher earns two-year National Institutes of Health grant to develop a pig model of Alzheimer’s disease , articleThe research, which is conducted in partnership with the University of Missouri-Columbia and Florida International University, aims to create Alzheimer’s disease models that better replicate the disease in humans.