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Franklin G. Garcia

Franklin G. Garcia

Assistant Project Scientist, Department of Neurobiology & Behavior

Biography

Franklin G. Garcia, Ph.D., is an Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Neurobiology & Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Garcia received his Ph.D. in Pathology and Cell Biology from Columbia University in 2017, where his thesis work focused on the role of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 R132H mutations in oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and glioma formation. His research spans neurodegenerative disease, brain tumor biology, and the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory.

Garcia's doctoral research produced the first murine model of IDH1 R132H mutant gliomas initiated from oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, along with stable tumor cell lines retaining the metabolic mutation. This work identified distinct metabolic profiles in IDH-1 mutant tumors and demonstrated that combining inhibitors of histone H3K27 methyltransferase and deacetylases with anti-apoptotic pathway targeting could increase cytotoxicity in glioma cells. His findings linked metabolic and epigenetic pathways in oligodendrocyte progenitor cells that are altered during tumor formation.

Since joining the laboratory of Marcelo Wood at UC Irvine, Garcia has investigated the role of nucleosome remodeling in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory formation. His current work examines how CREST (calcium-response transactivator) coordinates histone acetylation and nucleosome remodeling during memory consolidation, and explores the relationship between acetyl-CoA metabolism and histone acetylation in learning-induced memory processes. Garcia's research on ACC1, an enzyme that converts acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA, has shown that hippocampal knockdown or deletion of Acc1 can facilitate memory formation in the adult brain and rescue memory impairment in aged mice.

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Education

  • BS in Neurobiology & Behavior, University of California, Irvine, 2010
  • Ph.D. in Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, 2017
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Distinctions

  • Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training Fellowship, 2008-2009
  • Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Scholar, 2007-2008
  • Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Scholar, 2008-2010
  • National Institute on Aging Research Award to Promote Diversity in Health-related Research, 2010-2011
  • Howard Hughes Institute Med into Grad Program research initiative-Fellow, 2011-2013
  • Distinguished Award for Superior Poster Presentation in the Cellular and Molecular Sciences, Sigma Xi Honor Society Annual Meeting, 2009
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Areas of Expertise

  • Epigenetic Memory Mechanisms
  • Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology
  • Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Transformation
  • Glioma Metabolic Profiling
  • CREST Transcriptional Regulation
  • Nucleosome Remodeling Complexes
  • Acetyl-CoA Metabolic Pathways

Recent Publications

  • Sprinzen L, Garcia F, Mela A, Lei L, Upadhyayula P, Mahajan A, Humala N, Manier L, Caprioli R, Quiñones-Hinojosa A, Casaccia P, Canoll P, “EZH2 Inhibition Sensitizes IDH1R132H-Mutant Gliomas to Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor” (opens in new tab), Cells, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 219, 2024.
  • Perez-Sisques, L., Bhatt, S., Matuleviciute, R., Gileadi, T., Kramar, E., Graham, A., Garcia, F., Keiser, A., Matheos, D., Cain, J.A., Pittman, A.M., Fernandes, C., Wood, M.A., Giese, K.P., Basson, M.A., “The intellectual disability risk gene KDM5B regulates long term memory consolidation in the hippocampus”, J Neurosci, 2024.
  • Baglietto-Vargas, D., Forner, S., Cai, L., Martini, A. C., Trujillo-Estrada, L., Swarup, V., Nguyen, M. M. T., Do Huynh, K., Javonillo, D. I., Tran, K. M., Phan, J., Jiang, S., Kramár, E. A., Nuñez-Diaz, C., Balderrama-Gutierrez, G., Garcia, F., Childs, J., Rodriguez-Ortiz, C. J., Garcia-Leon, J. A., LaFerla, F. M., “Generation of a humanized Aβ expressing mouse demonstrating aspects of Alzheimer's disease-like pathology”, Nature Commun, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 2421, 2021.
  • Karpel-Massler, G., Ishida, C.T., Bianchetti, E., Zhang, Y., Shu, C., Tsujiuchi, T., Banu, M., Garcia, F., Roth, K., Bruce, J., Canoll, P., Siegelin, M., “Induction of synthetic lethality in IDH1-mutated gliomas through inhibition of Bcl-xL”, Nature Communications, 2017.
  • Gonzalez, C., Sims, J.S., Hornstein, N., Mela, A., Garcia, F., Lei, L., Gass, D.A., Amendolara, B., Bruce, J.N., Canoll, P., Sims, P.A., “Ribosome profiling reveals a cell-type-specific translational landscape in brain tumors”, Journal of Neuroscience, 2014.
  • Koike, M. A., Garcia, F. G., Kitazawa, M., Green, K. N., Laferla, F. M., “Long term changes in phospho-APP and tau aggregation in the 3xTg-AD mice following cerebral ischemia”, Neuroscience letters, vol. 495, no. 1, pp. 55-59, 2011.
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Contact Information

Email: franklin.garcia@uci.edu

Phone: (949) 824-2356

Address: 200 Qureshey Research Lab

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 4/23/2026.