Scientific Review Committee
The Brain Research Foundation Scientific Review Committee was established to review our research grant applications. This committee is a combination of researchers from several institutions throughout greater Chicago and nationwide. Their scientific expertise is invaluable when reviewing the Brain Research Foundation research grant proposals. Following is a brief description of each reviewer's research interests:
Chair
Sangram S. Sisodia, Ph.D.
The University of Chicago
Dr. Sangram Sisodia’s laboratory studies the molecular and cellular basis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of senile dementia. AD affects neurons in the neocortex, hippocampus and basal forebrain. Affected brain regions contain abundant levels of senile plaques composed of ß amyloid, derived from amyloid precursor proteins (APP). Early-onset, familial forms of AD (FAD) are caused by inheritance of genes encoding mutant variants of presenilin 1 (PS1), presenilin 2 (PS2), and APP. Research in his laboratory has focused on understanding the normal biology of PS1 and PS2, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which mutant PS and APP cause AD. To explore these issues, his laboratory has employed cellular and biochemical approaches, as well as transgenic and gene-targeted mouse models. The mouse models have offered important insights into disease pathogenesis and his laboratory has discovered critical genetic and environmental factors that influence these processes.
Members
Scott T. Brady, Ph.D.
University of Illinois at Chicago
The size and complex shapes of many neurons present unique challenges
in delivering essential components to the right places in the right
amounts. An efficient set of intracellular transport processes known as
axonal transport are required to generate and maintain the functional
architecture of neurons. Recent evidence suggests that many late onset
neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and
Parkinson’s disease, as well as ALS, are the result of disruptions in
this trafficking of proteins essential for neuronal function.
Remarkably, these often involve changes in the regulation of motor
proteins and targeting of cargoes carried by axonal transport. Based on
these approaches, Dr. Scott Brady’s lab is identifying novel pathogenic
mechanisms and new therapeutic targets by studying these changes in
neuronal transport mechanisms.
John A. Kessler, M.D.
Northwestern University
Dr. John Kessler’s laboratory focuses on the
biology of embryonic stem cells and neural stem cells. He is interested
in defining mechanisms regulating neuronal and glial differentiation of
stem/progenitor cells, and on understanding how growth factors promote
neuronal and glial survival and phenotypic expression. These studies
seek to identify the cytokines that regulate stem cell proliferation
and differentiation, to define the intracellular signals that transduce
their effects, and to understand how the effects of different growth
factors are integrated by the progenitor cell. Although the principal
focus of these studies is on definition of mechanisms underlying stem
cell differentiation, a significant effort is also devoted to applying
molecular neurobiology to clinical problems. Specifically they are
developing techniques for the treatment of spinal cord injury and
stroke.
Jeffrey H. Kordower, Ph.D.
Rush University Medical Center
Dr. Jeffrey Kordower is a leading researcher in the fields of gene
therapy, neural transplantation, nonhuman primate models of
neurodegenerative disease and experimental therapeutic strategies for
Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. In 1995, he made the pioneering
demonstration that fetal transplants can survive in patients with
Parkinson’s disease; a paper that was published in
The New England Journal of Medicine. In 2000, he published the lead article in
Science,
demonstrating for the first time that gene delivery of a trophic factor
called GDNF can prevent degeneration and restore function in nonhuman
primate models of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Kordower is a Scientific
Advisory Board (SAB) Member for numerous biotechnology companies and
foundations, including a founding member of the SAB for the Michael J.
Fox Foundation. Currently his main interests involve gene therapy and
cell replacement strategies using stem cells in rodent and nonhuman
primate models of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.
A. Kimberley McAllister, Ph.D.
University of California
Research in McAllister's laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation, competition, and elimination in the developing visual cortex. The lab studies the formation, persistence, and elimination of individual synapses between dissociated, cultured visual cortical neurons using time-lapse imaging.
In addition to studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation and plasticity, her lab is also interested in elucidating the role for immune molecules in early postnatal cortical development. McAllister's lab is working to identify the role for cytokines and synaptic activity in regulating MHCI expression as well as detemrining the mechanisms that MHCI uses to negatively regulate cortical connectivity. Since these immune molecules are implicated in several neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia, MHCI molecules could mediate the effects of the environment on cortical connectivity both during normal development and in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Matthew W. State, M.D., Ph.D.
Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. State's laboratory is interested in identifying and characterizing genes and genetic mechanisms involved in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. Currently they are focused on Tourette syndrome (TS) and Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD), Autism and related pervasive developmental disorders, childhood onset schizophrenia and structural brain disorders. Dr. State's lab has a long standing interest in the contribution of rare variation to these syndromes and focus on gene discovery as an avenue to elaborate molecular mechanisms of disease. They currently employ a range of approaches including traditional gene mapping in families demonstrating Mendelian inheritance, molecular cytogenetic analyses of de novo chromosomal rearrangements, and high throughput genomic approaches including genome wide copy number analyses and massively parallel sequencing.