The Neurobiology Program has gained prominence in the Chicago area for hosting the Chicago Neural Repair Club, a scientific forum that attracts neuroscientists from all of Chicago. For the past 11 years, the club has hosted approximately 12 seminars per year with an emphasis on neural stem cell research.
Click here for dates and more information for the 2008 - 2009 NRC series.
The research center is pleased to announce the recruitment of Yong-Chao Ma, PhD, to the Neurobiology Program
as assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Feinberg School. He
completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Michael
Greenberg at Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital of Boston,
where he received the William Randolph Hearst Award and a fellowship
from the American Cancer Society. Ma is interested in the long-standing
question of how extrinsic cellular factors lead to the formation of the
different types of neurons that comprise the mammalian brain. He
discovered a novel mechanism that is involved in the formation of motor
neurons in the spinal cord; the findings were recently reported in the
prestigious journal Neuron.
At the research center,
Ma plans to define the mechanisms involved in the formation of dopamine
neurons. This research will be relevant to neurological disorders in
which the neurotransmitter dopamine is important, such as Parkinson’s
disease, dystonia, addiction, schizophrenia, depression and some forms
of dementia. He hopes to generate a genome-wide picture of
transcription factors involved in the development of dopamine neurons
and to define their interactions. Ma will also apply his findings to
the differentiation of stem cells into defined types of neurons, which
will be an exciting contribution to the field of regenerative medicine.
Ma will join the research center in September.
Sookyong Koh, MD, PhD, received the 2008 Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award during the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 60th annual meeting. This award recognizes physicians in the early stages of their careers who have made an independent contribution to epilepsy research. Koh is assistant professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, an attending physician in the Division of Neurology at Children’s Memorial Hospital and a member of the Neurobiology Program of Children's Memorial Research Center.
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Martha C. Bohn, PhD at the CMRC and Rodolfo Goya, PhD at the University of LaPlata were awarded an NIH Fogarty Award in 2004 under a program to stimulate research on aging in developing countries. Goya has a colony of senile rats which is not available elsewhere and the project is applying gene therapy in these rats for aging neurons in the hypothalamus, the region of the brain that controls hormones. This award included travel funds for mutual visits of the scientists at the two institutions. Last year, Dr. Goya and three scientists in his lab visited the CMRC last year. This November, Dr. Bohn and Dr. Elio F. Vanin, managing director of the CMRC viral vector facility, visited the Univ. of LaPlata for a week. Seminars were presented by both Bohn and Vanin at the Univ. of LaPlata, and at the Institute for Experimental Biology and Medicine and the Leloir Foundation, both in Buenos Aires. The Argentinian hospitality was outstanding and included great food, wonderful scenery and interesting scientific discussion.
On February 9, 2006, Ms. Kathy Bartley from Highland High School in
Highland, Indiana, brought her Advanced Biology class to Children’s
Memorial Research Center to spend a day with researchers. The students
met with 10 scientists, both faculty and postdoctoral fellows, at the
CMRC, each of whom gave a specialized presentation on topics such as
zebrafish, viruses for gene therapy, Parkinson’s disease research,
embryonic stem cells and DNA/RNA techniques. The guests also toured the
CMRC laboratories and saw first hand equipment used for gene arrays,
DNA analysis and the like.
This was the second year in a row that the Advanced Biology class has
visited the CMRC. Dr. Martha Bohn, Director of the Neurobiology Program
which hosted the visit, said, “These were very enthusiastic young
people who asked lots of great questions and said that their negative
views on stem cell research had changed 180 degrees as a consequence of
their visit”.
Scientists in the Neurobiology Program have been conducting investigations of molecular processes underlying normal and abnormal brain development since 1997. Their research may ultimately lead to novel molecular and genetic therapies for diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord in children and adults. Investigators are involved in a variety of studies, examining, among others: (i) genes important to the formation of specific areas in the developing brain; (ii) how stem cells in the brain behave after brain injury; (iii) the role of growth factors in the development of the nervous system, nerve function, and death of neurons; and (iv) mechanisms involved in brain tumor formation, including gene expression profiles to identify certain brain tumors. One focus is on laboratory studies of gene therapy as an approach to correct defective genes in nerve cells, to kill tumor cells, and to prevent the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. For example, Dr. Bohn has successfully ameliorated the progression of disease in animal models of Lou Gehrig’s and Parkinson’s diseases through gene therapy. Her team is now seeking to develop means for successfully delivering therapeutic genes to the human nervous system for people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases and nervous system injuries.
A new initiative of the Neurobiology Program, Children’s Research on Injury to the Brain (CRIB), brings together approximately 60 scientists representing a variety of disciplines who are conducting studies into the causes, treatment, and prevention of brain disease and injury. CRIB integrates diverse aspects of research and clinical studies, such as neurosurgery, cellular level function, and prevention and outcomes measures, to better understand brain development and ways to improve outcomes for children with brain injuries. CRIB’s goal is to facilitate the application of recently acquired scientific knowledge and technologies to develop novel clinical therapies – such as gene therapy and delivery approaches – for the brain and spinal cord
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