EmailRobert.Logan@enc.edu
Biographical Notes
Robert Logan joined ENC in the fall of 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Biology. In addition to maintaining a full teaching load, he also keeps an active research program at ENC. His research interests include neurodegenerative diseases, telomere biology and tracing DNA mutation dynamics. The scientific approaches taken in the Logan lab center on bioinformatic tools, third-generation nucleotide sequencing and traditional molecular biology approaches. The data that the Logan lab analyzes comes from private curated databases, publicly available datasets and in-house generated data from Drosophila melanogaster and cellular models. His ResearchGate score is higher than 77.5% of all ResearchGate members. In addition to his ENC employment, Robert is also a part-time Senior Bioinformatic Scientist at Pluripotent Diagnostics, based at the Molecular Medicine Research Institute in California.
Previous to arriving at ENC, Robert had spent eight years teaching college students at both private and public universities. His previous teaching experience included both lecture and laboratory classes and accommodated both science and non-science majors. Additionally, he held a joint appointment at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital to conduct Parkinson disease research with the Michael Schwarzschild group for five years.
Robert loves listening to music and playing his guitar in his spare time. He is also a fine art aficionado, an armchair philosopher and a coastal-lifestyle enthusiast. He is an active member of the First Church of the Nazarene in Lynn, MA and lives in Salem MA with his wife and two children.
Education
- PhD Biology, Northeastern University
- MS Neuroscience, Brandeis University
- BS Exercise and Sport Science, Fitchburg State University
Courses Taught at ENC
- Computational Genetic Analysis Tools
- Genetics lecture and lab
- Principles of Neuroscience
- Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Physiology lecture and lab
- Introduction to Plants and Animals lecture and lab
- Principles of Biology lecture and lab
Publications
- Logan, R., Williams, B.G., da Silva, M.F., Indani, A., Schcolnicov, N., Ganguly, A., Miller, S.J. Deep Convolutional Neural Networks with Ensemble Learning and Generative Adversarial Networks for Alzheimer’s Disease Image Data Classification. Front. Aging Neurosci. (In Press)
- Peters OM, Weiss A, Metterville A, Song L, Logan R, Smith GA, Schwarzschild MA, Mueller C, Brown RH, Freeman M. Genetic diversity of axon degenerative mechanisms in models of Parkinson’s disease. Neurobiology of Disease 155 (2021): 105368
- Kong FZ, Wang Y, Wang MX, Cheng QZ, Logan R, Wu GH, Hu SM. Clinical characteristics of the first known cases of death caused by COVID-19 pneumonia. Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Nov; 12(22): 22405-22412.
- Annis S, Fleischmann Z, Logan R, Mullin-Bernstein Z, Franco M, Saurich J, Tilly JL, Woods DC, Khrapko K. LUCS: a high-resolution nucleic acid sequencing tool for accurate long-read analysis of individual DNA molecules. Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Apr; 12(8): 7603-7613.
- Schwarzschild MA, Macklin EA, Bakshi R, Battacharyya S, Logan R, Espay AJ, Hung AY, Bwala G, Goetz CG, Russell DS, Goudreau JL. Sex differences by design and outcome in the Safety of Urate Elevation in PD (SURE-PD) trial. Neurology. 2019 Sep 4:10-212
- Kastanenka K.V., Calvo-Rodriguez M., Hou S.S., Zhou H., Takeda S., Arbel-Ornath M., Lariviere A., Lee Y.F., Kim A., Hawkes J.M., Logan R., Feng D., Chen X., Gomperts S.N., Bacskai B.J. Frequency-dependent exacerbation of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathophysiology. Scientific Reports. 2019 June; 9(1):8964
- Bakshi R., Macklin E.A., Logan R., Zorlu M.M., Xia N., Crotty G.F., Zhang E., Chen X., Ascherio A. and Schwarzschild M.A. Higher urate in LRRK2 mutation carriers resistant to Parkinson’s disease. Annals of neurology. 2019 April; 85(4): 593-599
- Chen X, Umeh CC, Tainsh RE, Feng DD, Maguire M, Zuo F, Rahimian M, Logan R, Wang X, Ascherio A, Macklin EA. Dissociation between urate and blood pressure in mice and in people with early Parkinson’s disease. EBioMedicine. 2018 Nov; 37:259-268.
- Chen X, Chen H, Cai W, Maguire M, Ya B, Zuo F, Logan R, Li H, Robinson K, Vanderburg CR, Yu Y, Wang Y, Fisher DE, Schwarzschild MA. The melanoma-linked “redhead” MC1R influences dopaminergic neuron survival. Ann Neurol. 2017 Mar;81(3):395-406
- Kastanenka KV, Hou SS, Shakerdge N, Logan R, Feng D, Wegmann S, Chopra V, Hawkes JM, Chen X, Bacskai BJ. Optogenetic restoration of disrupted slow oscillations halts amyloid deposition and restores calcium homeostasis in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. PLoS One. 2017 Jan 23;12(1):e0170275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170275.
- Bhattacharyya S, Bakshi R, Logan R, Ascherio A, Macklin EA, Schwarzschild MA. Oral inosine persistently elevates plasma antioxidant capacity in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord. 2016 March; 31(3):417-21.
- Bakshi R, Logan R, Schwarzschild MA. “Purines in Parkinson’s: Adenosine A2A receptors and urate as targets for neuroprotection.” The Adenosinergic System – A Non-Dopaminergic Target in Parkinson’s Disease. Eds. M Morelli et al.: Springer International Publishing, 2015. 101-126. Print.
- Bakshi R, Zhang H, Logan R, Joshi I, Chen X, Schwarzschild MA. Neuroprotective effects of urate mediated by astrocytic induction of Nrf2 signaling and glutathione release. Neurobiol Dis. 2015 Oct; 82: 574-9.
- The Parkinson Study Group SURE-PD Investigators; Schwarzschild MA, Ascherio A, Beal MF, Cudkowicz ME, Curhan GC, Hare JM, Hooper DC, Kieburtz KD, Macklin EA, Oakes D, Rudolph A, Shoulson I, Tennis MK, Espay AJ, Gartner M, Hung A, Bwala G, Lenehan R, Encarnacion E, Ainslie M, Castillo R, Togasaki D, Barles G, Friedman JH, Niles L, Carter JH, Murray M, Goetz CG, Jaglin J, Ahmed A, Russell DS, Cotto C, Goudreau JL, Russell D, Parashos SA, Ede P, Saint-Hilaire MH, Thomas CA, James R, Stacy MA, Johnson J, Gauger L, Antonelle de Marcaida J, Thurlow S, Isaacson SH, Carvajal L, Rao J, Cook M, Hope-Porche C, McClurg L, Grasso DL, Logan R, Orme C, Ross T, Brocht AF, Constantinescu R, Sharma S, Venuto C, Weber J, Eaton K. Inosine to increase serum and cerebrospinal fluid urate in Parkinson disease: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Neurol. 2014 Feb 1;71(2):141-50.
- Chen X, Burdett T, Desjardins CA, Logan R, Xu Y, Cipriani S, Schwarzschild MA. Disrupted and transgenic urate oxidase alters urate and neurodegeneration in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan;110(1):300-5
- Burdett T, Desjardins CA, Logan R, McFarland NR, Chen X, Schwarzschild MA. Efficient determination of purine metabolites in brain tissue and serum by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical and UV detection. Biomed Chromatogr. 2013 Jan;27(1):122-9
Honors
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention
Website
www.theloganlab.com
Expertise
Bioinformatics, neuroscience, anatomy and physiology
Extracurricular Activities
Fun Facts
I own a sailboat and play the guitar