Natallia Makarava

Natallia Makarava is a Research Associate at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, affiliated with the Center for Biomedical and Engineering and Technology. She has dedicated her career to studying molecular features of prions since 2004, with a focus on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and neuroinflammation.

• Education: B.S. in Biology (1996, Saint Petersburg State University)
• Training: Genetic markers in rye (Germany), AP-1 transcription factors in cancer (Texas Tech), and prion biology (University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute).

Her research spans molecular biology, neuroinflammation, and prion pathogenesis, including groundbreaking work on synthetic prion creation and structural evolution. Recent projects analyze microglia/astrocyte activation phenotypes in prion disease via immunohistochemistry and transcriptomics.

Notable publication trends include

• Prion infectivity detection (2010-2016)
• Sialylation studies (2015)
• Structural requirements for prion propagation (2010, 2011, 2016)

Labs & Teams: Works in the Baskakov Lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, contributing to prion disease research with interdisciplinary approaches.