My primary interest is developmental neurobiology, specifically understanding how developing neurons adopt specific sensory fates and innervate the proper targets. During development, cranial sensory ganglia innervate a diverse array of peripheral tissues, and are formed from two populations of neurons, neural crest-derived neurons and neurons derived from epibranchial placodes. The gustatory components of these sensory ganglia produce nerves which innervate taste buds and transmit taste information to the central nervous system. I am interested in understanding how different subpopulations of sensory neurons, gustatory versus non-gustatory, are generated and maintained. Do neural crest and placodally derived populations produce functionally distinct sensory neurons in adult animals, i.e., do placodes give rise to gustatory neurons while neural crest derived cells innervate non-gustatory targets? What role do neurotrophins play in maintaining neuronal fate? Mice lacking brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, lose sensory neurons in the developing ganglia and lack subsequent gustatory innervation to taste buds. Do developing gustatory neurons require autocrine or paracrine neurotrophic support from ganglion neurons prior to target innervation? I am using a variety of techniques to answer these questions, including tissue culture, microsurgery and microinjection, murine transgenics, tissue-specific gene deletion, immunofluoresence, in situ hybridization, digital imaging and 3-D reconstruction.

General Interests:
Snowboarding, hiking, backpacking, travel, local politics, medieval and sci-fi movies, my family.

Latest Publications in PubMed