Behavioral pharmacology and drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease and aging- related disorders.
Neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive disorders and related co-morbidities.
Phenotypic characterization of genetically diverse rodent and non-human primate models.
Research in Dr. Rizzo’s lab focuses on investigating the genetic contributions underlying the pathophysiological of diseases of Aging including Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and related neuropsychiatric and cognitive co-morbidities, in order to interrogate novel pathways and targets that may enable the identification of new therapeutic agents.
Dr. Rizzo is a behavior pharmacologist by training and holds a BS in Animal Sciences from Rutgers University and a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London. She is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral phenotyping and pharmacology of genetic mouse models. Dr. Rizzo previously spent 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry in Neuroscience Drug Discovery departments at Wyeth Research, Merck Research Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer where she led and contributed to many drug discovery projects across therapeutic areas. Prior to her current appoint, from 2014-2019, Dr. Rizzo served as Director of Mouse Neurobehavioral Phenotyping at The Jackson Laboratory’s Institute for Mammalian Genetics (JAX) and Associate Director of JAX’s Center for Biometric Analysis.
Dr. Rizzo’s lab is a critical component of the NIA funded Model Organism Development for Late Onset Alzheimer’s disease (MODEL-AD) consortium where she co-heads the Preclinical Testing Core which evaluates the potential therapeutic efficacy of novel test compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Representative Publications
Assessing healthspan and lifespan measures in aging mice: optimization of testing protocols, replicability, and rater reliability.
Sukoff Rizzo, S.J., Anderson, L.C., Green, T.L., McGarr, T., Wells, G., Winter, S.S.
Current Protocols in Mouse Biology (2018)
Acarbose improves health and lifespan in aging HET3 mice.
Harrison DE, Strong R, Alavez S, Astle CM, DiGiovanni J, Fernandez E, Flurkey K, Garratt M, Gelfond JAL, Javors MA, Levi M, Lithgow GJ, Macchiarini F, Nelson JF, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Slaga TJ, Stearns T, Wilkinson JE, Miller RA.
Aging Cell (2019)
Enhancing face validity of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease with natural genetic variation.
Onos KD, Uyar A, Keezer KJ, Jackson HM, Preuss C, Acklin CJ, O'Rourke R, Buchanan R, Cossette TL, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Soto I, Carter GW, Howell GR
PLoS Genetics (2019)
Functional rescue in a mouse model of congenital muscular dystrophy with megaconial myopathy.
Sayed AA, Sher RB, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Anderson LC, Patenaude KE, Cox GA
Human Molecular Genetics (2019)
Exercise prevents obesity-induced cognitive decline and white matter damage in mice.
Graham LC, Weronika GA, Chun Y, Risacher S, Philip VM, Saykin AJ, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Howell GR
Neurobiology of Aging (2019)
Post-mortem transcriptional profiling reveals widespread increase in inflammation in schizophrenia: a comparison of prefrontal cortex, striatum and hippocampus among matched tetrads of controls with subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar or major depressive disorder.
Lanz TA, Reinhart V, Sheehan S, Rizzo SJS, Bove SE, James LC, Volfson D, Lewis DA, Kleiman RJ
Translational Psychiatry (2019)
Methodological Considerations for Optimizing and Validating Behavioral Assays.
Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Silverman JL
Current Protocols in Mouse Biology (2016)
Alternative method of oral administration by peanut butter pellet fotmulation results in target engagement of BACEl and attenuation of gavage-induced stress responses in mice.
Gonzales C, Zaleska M, Riddell DR, Atchison KP, Robshaw A, Zhou H, Sukoff Rizzo SJ
Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior (2014)
Toward more predictive genetic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.
Onos KD, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Howell GR, Sasner M
Brain Research Bulletin (2016)
Behavioral Phenotyping Assays for Genetic Mouse Models of Neurodevelopmental, Neurodegenerative, and Psychiatric Disorders.
Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Crawley JN
Annual Review of Animal Biosciences (2017)
Behavioral characterization of A53T mice reveals early and late stage deficits related to Parkinson's disease.
Paumier KL, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Berger Z, Chen Y, Gonzales C, Kaftan E, Li L, Lotarski S, Monaghan M, Shen W, Stolyar S, Vasilyev D, Zaleska M, Hirst WD, Dunlop J
PLoS ONE (2013)
Evidence for sustained elevation of IL-6 in the CNS as a key contributor of depressive-like phenotypes.
Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Neal SJ, Hughes ZA, Beyna M, Rosenzweig-Lipson S, Brandon NJ, Moss SJ
Translational Psychiatry (2012)
Future Viable Models of Psychiatry Drug Discovery in Pharma.
Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Edgerton JR, Hughes ZA, Brandon NJ
Journal of Biomolecular Screening (2013)