Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Department of Pathology 

Paula Desplats received her PhD from the University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, and moved to California to train in neurodegeneration. After a postdoctoral stay at The Scripps Research Institute working on Huntington’s disease, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Eliezer Masliah at UCSD, where she broadened her training in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s pathology. 

She became a faculty member of the Department of Neurosciences in 2009 and joined the Department of Pathology in 2016. Her pioneer studies in neuroepigenetics unveiled alterations in DNA methylation as novel mechanisms of disease and opened the exploration of epigenetic profiles as potential biomarkers for improved and early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Her current work includes unveiling the role of circadian alterations in triggering neuronal death in Alzheimer’s disease.