Rate My Professor Karen Parfitt

Karen D. Parfitt is Professor of Neuroscience and Chair of the Neuroscience Department at Pomona College, where she has been a faculty member since 1994, initially as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology before her promotion to Associate Professor in 2000. She earned her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1989, with a thesis on age-related changes in receptors coupled to adenylate cyclase advised by Dr. Robert Freedman, and her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University in 1983. Parfitt completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University: from 1989 to 1992 in Daniel V. Madison's laboratory studying synaptic plasticity in rat hippocampus, including the role of presynaptic calcium channels via whole-cell voltage clamp, field extracellular recording, and single-channel recording; and from 1992 to 1994 in Thomas L. Schwarz's laboratory examining synaptotagmin and syntaxin functions in neurotransmitter release at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction using Drosophila genetics, immunohistochemistry, and electrophysiology.

Parfitt's research centers on synaptic physiology and plasticity, molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter release, neurobiology of Alzheimer’s Disease, and effects of exercise on synaptic plasticity. She has mentored numerous undergraduates, many as co-authors on publications. Her grants include the National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (1991), Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Institutes of Aging (1998), American Federation for Aging Research grant (1995), and NSF Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant (1995). Parfitt served as the first woman President of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (2000-2001) and received its Service Award (2011). Key publications encompass Morrissey et al., 'The Tripeptide RER Mimics Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein-Alpha in Upregulating LTP' (2019, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience); Mockett et al., 'Glutamate receptor trafficking and protein synthesis mediate the facilitation of LTP by secreted amyloid precursor protein–alpha' (2019, Journal of Neuroscience); Tan et al., 'Lentivirus-mediated expression of human secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha prevents development of memory and plasticity deficits' (2018, Molecular Brain); Johnson et al., 'The HSPGs Syndecan and Dallylike bind the receptor phosphatase LAR' (2006, Neuron); and Parfitt and Madison, 'Phorbol Esters Enhance Synaptic Transmission in the Hippocampus' (1993, Journal of Physiology). She has reviewed manuscripts for Journal of Neuroscience and others, advancing undergraduate neuroscience education.