Faculty

Matthew L MacDonald, PhD

Matthew L MacDonald, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Contact Details

200 Lorthrop Street
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Phone 412-383-7683
Email
Website
MacDonald Lab

Education & Training

PhD
Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine
Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Professional Affiliations

Member, Society for Neuroscience
Member, American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Selected Honors & Awards

NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

Research Interests

Proteomics and protein networks; Schizophrenia relevant spine biology; Protein network alterations in schizophrenia
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Krivinko JM, Fan P, Sui Z, Happe C, Hensler C, Gilardi J, Ikonomovic MD, McKinney BC, Newman J, Ding Y, Wang L, Sweet RA, MacDonald ML. Age-related loss of large dendritic spines in the precuneus is statistically mediated by proteins which are predicted targets of existing drugs. Mol Psychiatry. 2025 May;30(5):2059-2067. doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02817-w. Epub 2024 Nov 13. PMID: 39537705.
  2. Dumrongprechachan V, Salisbury RB, Butler L, MacDonald ML, Kozorovitskiy Y. Dynamic proteomic and phosphoproteomic atlas of corticostriatal axons in neurodevelopment. Elife. 2022 Oct 14;11:e78847. doi: 10.7554/eLife.78847. PMID: 36239373; PMCID: PMC9629834.
  3. Dumrongprechachan V, Salisbury RB, Soto G, Kumar M, MacDonald ML, Kozorovitskiy Y. Cell-type and subcellular compartment-specific APEX2 proximity labeling reveals activity-dependent nuclear proteome dynamics in the striatum. Nat Commun. 2021 Aug 11;12(1):4855. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25144-y. PMID: 34381044; PMCID: PMC8357913.
  4. MacDonald ML, Garver M, Newman J, Sun Z, Kannarkat J, Salisbury R, Glausier J, Ding Y, Lewis DA, Yates N, Sweet RA. Synaptic proteome alterations in the primary auditory cortex of schizophrenia. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019 Oct 23:1-10. PMID: 31642882.
  5. MacDonald ML, Alhassan J, Newman JT, Richard M, Gu H, Kelly RM, Sampson AR, Fish KN, Penzes P, Wills ZP, Lewis DA, Sweet RA. Selective loss of smaller spines in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2017 Jun 1;174(6):586-594. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.16070814. Epub 2017 Mar 31. PMID: 28359200; PMCID: PMC5800878.

Education Interests

Research mentoring; Graduate student education

Recent Research on the Association Between Aberrant Dendritic Development and Risk for Schizophrenia

Images of Brains

Melanie Grubisha, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), investigates the molecular underpinnings of psychiatric and neurological disease, focusing on the molecular pathways responsible for both typical and aberrant dendritic development across adolescence. Two recent papers in Neurobiology of Disease describe recent findings on the association between dendritic alterations and risk for schizophrenia...

Neurobiology of Disease: Phosphorylated-tau Associates with HSV-1 Chromatin and Correlates with Nuclear Speckles Decondensation in Low-Density Host Chromatin Regions

Leonardo D'Aiuto, PhD

Abnormal tau phosphorylation is a key pathophysiological mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to genetic and environmental factors, infectious agents, such as Herpes Simplex Virus 1, may be associated with the onset or progression of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. However, outstanding questions remain regarding the contribution of viruses in the etiology of...

Pitt Psychiatry Research Published in Molecular Psychiatry

Collage of Molecular Psychiatry Co-Authors

Multiple Pitt Psychiatry investigators have recently published studies in Molecular Psychiatry. Below is a roundup of recent original research on adolescent neurodevelopment, aging and cognition, and the association between sleep and psychosis. Adolescent maturation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex glutamate: GABA and cognitive function is supported by dopamine-related neurobiology Pitt Psychiatry investigators...

Pitt Psychiatry Awarded $33.5M National Institute on Aging Program Project Grant Focused on the Pathological and Clinical Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

Pitt Psychiatry Investigators Awarded New Program Project Grant

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry a Program Project Grant (PPG) renewal for “The role of astrogliosis in aging and the pathological and clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease.” The Alzheimer’s PPG will be led by a multiple principal investigator team including Ann Cohen, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD...

The Department of Psychiatry’s 20th Annual Research Day

The 20th annual Department of Psychiatry Research Day on June 9, 2022, represented a joyful reunion for more than 400 faculty members, trainees, and staff, who had not attended a large in-person event together since 2019. The morning session featured 110 posters at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. In the afternoon, attendees gathered across the street at the University...