Rate My Professor Joanna Williams

Associate Professor Joanna Williams is a molecular neurobiologist in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division. She holds BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from the University of Otago, with her PhD in Biochemistry completed between 1989 and 1993. Williams has served as Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy since February 2001 and has held a management position at the Centre for Brain Health Research since January 2012. She is also a member of the University of Otago Neuroscience programme.

Her research specializations encompass molecular mechanisms of memory, including regulation of glutamate receptors such as AMPA and NMDA receptors critical for synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation. Williams investigates gene and microRNA expressions altered by memory processes to understand molecular pathologies in aging-related memory loss and neurodegenerative diseases. A key focus is the neuroprotective and memory-enhancing functions of secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha (sAPPα), elucidating its mechanisms and therapeutic potential using molecular biological techniques, bioinformatics, proteomics, and human and animal models of Alzheimer's disease. She also advances biomarker discovery, identifying plasma microRNAs predictive of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and cognitive decline through methods like Western blotting, qPCR, qPCR arrays, microarrays, and epigenetics assays.

Key publications include Guévremont et al., 'Plasma microRNA predict cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease' (Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 2026); Potemkin et al., 'Whole Transcriptome RNA-Seq Reveals Drivers of Pathological Dysfunction in a Transgenic Model of Alzheimer’s Disease' (Molecular Neurobiology, 2025); Ryan et al., 'Lentivirus-Mediated Expression of Human Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein-Alpha Promotes Long-Term Induction of Neuroprotective Genes and Pathways in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease' (Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2021); and Ryan et al., 'Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein-Alpha Enhances LTP Through the Synthesis and Trafficking of Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptors' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2021). Her work contributes to potential early diagnostic blood tests for Alzheimer's disease.