Christina J. Sigurdson, DMV, PhD

Dr. Sigurdson is currently Associate Professor at UC San Diego, School of Medicine. She obtained her degree in veterinary medicine from the University of California, Davis, her PhD from Colorado State University along with Residency Training. Dr. Sigurdson is board certified in anatomic pathology.

Her research interests include the molecular pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), a family of fatal neurodegenerative disorders of humans and animals that includes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow disease”, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids. Her group has created a transgenic mouse expressing a structurally defined mutant prion protein that develops de novo prion disease, with prion aggregates and spongiform lesions in the brain. This may provide insights into the mechanisms of neurodegeneration and potential therapies to arrest a prion infection.