Jeffrey Daniel Macklis
Our laboratory is directed toward both 1) understanding molecular controls and mechanisms over neuron sub-type development, diversity, axon guidance-circuit formation, and degeneration-disease in the cerebral cortex (e.g. corticospinal motor neurons - CSMN - in motor neuron disease - ALS, HSPs, and PLS; associative circuitry in autism-ASD), and 2) applying developmental controls toward both brain-spinal cord regeneration (e.g. corticospinal motor neuron (CSMN) circuitry that degenerates in ALS-MND, and whose injury is central to loss of motor function in spinal cord injury) and directed differentiation for in vitro therapeutic and mechanistic screening.
The lab focuses on neocortical projection neuron development and subtype specification; new approaches to subtype-specific axonal growth cone biology; neural progenitor / “stem cell” biology; induction of adult neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons); and directed neuronal subtype differentiation via molecular manipulation of neural progenitors and pluripotent cells (ES/iPS). Relationships and application of cortical development to evolution, disease , and regeneration are frequent themes.
Contact Information
Bauer Laboratory 103
7 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138