Impact
Joseph Castellano is an associate professor of neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai whose laboratory studies how blood-borne factors influence brain aging and Alzheimer's disease. During his PhD with David Holtzman at Washington University in St. Louis he used in vivo microdialysis in mice to show that clearance of amyloid beta is slowed in the presence of ApoE4, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, compared with more protective ApoE forms. As a postdoctoral fellow in Tony Wyss-Coray's group at Stanford, he found that treatment with neonatal plasma revitalises hippocampal function in aged mice, part of the body of work on youth-associated plasma factors that reverse features of brain aging. His group now focuses on such circulating proteins, particularly TIMP2 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2), and how they act on the extracellular matrix and neural circuits. A 2026 Nature Communications study from his lab reports that deleting TIMP2 in mice worsens aging-associated microglial phenotypes, including inflammation and impaired phagocytosis. His NIH/NIA-funded work examines mechanisms of youth-associated blood-borne factors in central nervous system rejuvenation.
Metrics
- h-index 22 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
Research output
52 works · 6,873 citations · h-index 21 OpenAlex ↗
Selected publications
- Human apoE Isoforms Differentially Regulate Brain Amyloid-β Peptide Clearance ↗ 2011 · 1,221 citations
- Young blood reverses age-related impairments in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in mice ↗ 2014 · 1,120 citations
- Apolipoprotein E in Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders ↗ 2011 · 870 citations
- Aging-induced type I interferon response at the choroid plexus negatively affects brain function ↗ 2014 · 633 citations
- ApoE influences amyloid-β (Aβ) clearance despite minimal apoE/Aβ association in physiological conditions ↗ 2013 · 569 citations
Research funding
21 NIH awards · USD 10M total NIH RePORTER ↗
- Delineating systemic roles of APOE genotypes on CNS health National Institute on Aging · 2026 · USD 3M
- Mechanisms of youth-associated blood-borne factors regulating CNS rejuvenation National Institute on Aging · 2021 · USD 2M
- Mechanisms of youth-associated blood-borne factors regulating CNS rejuvenation National Institute on Aging · 2024 · USD 506K
- Mechanisms of youth-associated blood-borne factors regulating CNS rejuvenation National Institute on Aging · 2025 · USD 496K
- Mechanisms of TIMP2-mediated hippocampal revitalization in Alzheimer's disease National Institute on Aging · 2023 · USD 479K