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University of Missouri

Ryan Castoro, DO

Ryan Castoro portrait in a white coat

Assistant Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine

NextGen Focus Area: Peripheral Neuropathy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Epigenetics - DNA Methylation

Dr. Castoro leads a translational neuroscience lab which focuses on understanding the genetic, as well as epigenetic determinants of peripheral nerve disease and how these can be reversed.  As part of their approach, they are developing quantitative ultrasound as a biomarker to measure axonal degeneration in humans and in murine models. In addition, they utilize murine and direct induced motor/sensory neuron models to elucidate DNA methylation regulated neuronal degeneration of the peripheral nervous system.

Precision Health Impact:

  • Developing quantitative ultrasound as a biomarker for developing therapies in inherited peripheral nerve diseases. 
  • Identify age and pathologic related aberrant hyper- or hypo-methylation for the development of novel therapeutics to prevent peripheral neuronal degeneration.

Publications:

Castoro R, Caress JB, Li J, Cartwright MS. Arg953* mutation in Periaxin causes CMT4F without nerve hypertrophy on ultrasound imaging: A case report and review of the literature. Clin Neurophysiol. 2023 Mar;147:14–6.

Yan A, Geierman L, Andrianno C, Badr A, Castoro R. High-frequency Ultrasonography of the Digital and Palmar Nerve Branches of the Hand in Peripheral Nerve Diseases. J Vis Exp [Internet]. 2022 Jul 13;(185).

Caress JB, Castoro RJ, Simmons Z, Scelsa SN, Lewis RA, Ahlawat A, et al. COVID-19-associated Guillain-Barré syndrome: The early pandemic experience. Muscle Nerve. 2020 Oct;62(4):485–91.

Castoro R, Crisp J, Caress JB, Li J, Cartwright MS. Segmental nerve enlargement in CMT4J. Muscle Nerve. 2020 Jun;61(6):E44–6.

Hu B, McCollum M, Ravi V, Arpag S, Moiseev D, Castoro R, et al. Myelin abnormality in Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4J recapitulates features of acquired demyelination. Ann Neurol. 2018 Apr;83(4):756–70.

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Email: rc7bd@missouri.edu
Department website: https://www.muhealth.org/doctors/ryan-castoro-do