Research Acting Instructor, Dept. of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington

Dr. Mondello’s research aims to identify ways to form new circuitry that supports functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Her current research program is a synergy and extension of my previous work, utilizing optogenetic spinal stimulation paired with rehabilitation strategies to modulate spinal circuitry and enhance hand and arm recovery after cervical injury in rats. This is further explored using tract tracing techniques to identify changes in both supra- and proprio-spinal circuitry. Her studies look at the independent effects of optogenetic stimulation, as well as the combinatorial effects when optogenetics is paired with other therapeutics such as enzyme degradation or neural stem cells.

Select Publications

S.E. Mondello, M.D. Sunshine, A.E. Fischedick, G.D. Horwitz, P. Anikeeva, P.J. Horner, C.T. Moritz.  (2018) Optogenetic surface stimulation of the rat cervical spinal cord. Journal of Neurophysiology.  120:795–811. PMID: 29718809

S.E. Mondello, S.C. Jefferson, W. Osteen, D.R. Howland. (2016) Enhancing Fluorogold-Based Neural Tract Tracing. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 270:85-91. PMID: 27288218

S.E. Mondello*, M.D. Sunshine*, A.E. Fischedick, C.T. Moritz, P.J. Horner. (2015b) A cervical hemicontusion spinal cord injury model for the investigation of novel therapeutics targeting proximal and distal forelimb functional recovery. Journal of Neurotrauma 32(24):1994-2007. PMID: 25929319. Cover article. (*=Equal contributions)

S.E. Mondello, S.C. Jefferson, N.J. Tester, D.R. Howland. (2015a) Effect of chondroitinase abc treatment duration on plasticity of descending pathways and locomotor recovery following SCI. Journal of Experimental Neurology 267:64-77. PMID: 25725355.

S.E. Mondello, M.R. Kasten, P.J. Horner, C.T. Moritz. (2014) Therapeutic intraspinal stimulation to generate activity and promote long-term recovery. Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics 8:21. PMID: 24578680

S.E. Nutt, E. Chang, S.T. Suhr, L.O. Schlosser, S.E. Mondello, C.T. Moritz, J.B. Cibelli, P.J. Horner. Caudalized human iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells produce neurons and glia but fail to restore function in an early chronic spinal cord injury model. (2013) Experimental Neurology 248:491-503.