Overview

Dr. Elkabes received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel where she was awarded the Feinberg Graduate School Award for excellence. Dr. Elkabes pursued her post-doctoral training in Neurobiology at the National Institute of Health and Cornell University Medical College. She held a faculty appointment in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Robert W. Johnson Medical School-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, before joining the faculty at NJMS, Rutgers.

Dr. Elkabes is a full member of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) at Rutgers. She received the Golden Axon Award for excellence in neuroscience teaching at NJMS. She has served as an acting co-director, executive and admission committee member and first-year advisor in the graduate school.

Dr. Elkabes' research focuses on innate immunity, neuroprotection, neural regeneration, neuron-glia interactions, and mechanisms of neuropathic pain in animal models of spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. Her research has been funded by the NIH and New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research (NJCSCR). Dr. Elkabes has been a reviewer in NIH and DOD study sections, The Israel Science Foundation; The Marsden Fund Council, New Zealand and The Medical Research Council, U.K. Dr. Elkabes has served as an ad hoc reviewer in numerous scientific journals.???

Education

PHD, 1985, Feinberg Graduate School of Weizmann Institute

Languages

French
Hebrew
Italian
Spanish
Turkish

Relevant Publications

Acioglu C, Elkabes S (2025) Innate immune sensors and regulators at the blood brain barrier: focus on toll-like receptors and inflammasomes as mediators of neuro-immune crosstalk and inflammation. J. Neuroinflammation, 22:39 DOI: 10.1186/s12974-025- 03360-3

Acioglu C, Elkabes S (2024) Immune Sensors, Regulators, and Effectors of Brain Health. In: Gendelman, H.E., Ikezu, T. (eds) Neuroimmune Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68237-7_3

Acioglu C, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2022) Roles of neuronal toll-like receptors in neuropathic pain and central nervous system injuries and diseases. Brain Behav. Immun. 102:163-178. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2022.02.016

Li L, Acioglu C, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2022) Innate immune responses of glia and inflammatory cells following spinal cord injury. In: Rajendram R, Preedy VR, Martin C (Eds) Cellular, Molecular, Physiological and Behavioral Aspects of Spinal Cord Injury. pp153-164, Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822427-4.00013-7

Li L, Acioglu C, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2021) Role of astroglial toll-like receptors (TLRs) in central nervous system infections, injury and neurodegenerative diseases. Brain Behav. Immun. 91:740-755. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.10.007

Li L, Ni L, Heary RF, Elkabes S. (2020) Astroglial TLR9 antagonism promotes chemotaxis and alternative activation of macrophages via modulation of astrocyte-derived signals: implications for spinal cord injury. J Neuroinflammation. 17:73. DOI: 10.1186/s12974- 020-01748-x

Li L, Ni L, Eugenin EA, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2019) Toll-like Receptor 9 Antagonism Modulates Astrocyte Function and Preserves Proximal Axons following Spinal Cord Injury. Brain Behav Immun. 80:328-343. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.010

Mirabelli E, Ni L, Li L, Acioglu C, Heary RF, Elkabes S (2019) Pathological pain processing in mouse models of multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury: contribution of plasma membrane calcium ATPase 2 (PMCA2). J Neuroinflammation. 16:207. DOI: 10.1186/s12974-019-1585-2

Areas Of Interest

microglia

neurodegeneration

Multiple Sclerosis

Purkinje cell

astrocytes

calcium pumps.

cerebellum

demyelination

experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

neuroinflammation

neurotrophic factors

regeneration

spinal cord injury

toll-like receptors

Course List

NEURN5040

Neurobiology of Disease

Dr. Elkabes' research focuses on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, neuroprotection and regeneration in central nervous system inflammation and injury. The cross talk between glia and neurons and the contribution of the innate and adaptive immune responses to neurorepair are studied by use of animal models of multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury.