Laboratory of Dr. Patrizia Casaccia-Bonnefil

Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Tel. 732-235-4215  Fax. 732-235-4029

Meet the PI and other lab members

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Welcome to our research laboratory located on the 3rd floor of Research Tower, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  We hope that this website will provide you with the information about the exciting research being conducted, people who are performing the experiments, a variety of modern approaches used for solving each fundamental biological problem.  Enjoy your visit and please let us know if you have any questions, we will be more than happy to answer them.  We would also appreciate if you have any comments and suggestions about the website.  Again, warm welcome and thank you for visiting.  

Patrizia 11-11-2001 

Did You Know? ...

Our school has been ranked by U.S. News 2000 second best graduate school in the United States.  To learn more, click here.

A Little Bit of History ...

UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School was formerly known as Rutgers Medical School and it is located in Piscataway, in central New Jersey. In December of 1999 the space on the third floor of the research tower building was assigned to Dr. Casaccia-Bonnefil and the event was celebrated with a nice party. 

About Research in the Lab

During the development of an organism, a given progenitor cell undergoes several decisional steps between proliferation and growth arrest, between life and death. These basic decisions are determined by specific molecules, whose activity is regulated by environmental signals which include cell-cell contact, hormonal influences, growth factors, etc. The lab research focus is the study of these basic mechanisms regulating proliferation and differentiation of CNS progenitors. In physiological conditions, an orderly control of these pathways leads to generation of cellular diversity and appropriate brain size. In pathological conditions, loss of regulatory control results in cancer or neurodegenerative disorders.

Participating in the following programs:

Graduate Programs:

1. Physiology and Neurobiology (UMDNJ/Rutgers)
2. Graduate program in Molecular Biosciences (UMDNJ/Rutgers)
3. Graduate program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (UMDNJ, Associate Member)
4. Graduate program in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (UMDNJ, Associate Member)

Undergraduate Summer Research Programs: 

1. Neuroscience Undergraduate Summer Research Program for New Jersey Students
2. RISE Program at Rutgers for African American, Native American/American Indian, or Hispanic undergraduate students

Areas of Research:

• Developmental Neurobiology
• Cancer Biology
• Neural Stem Cell Biology
• Transcriptional control of differentiation
• Cell cycle regulation of CNS progenitors
• Animal models of demyelinating disorders
• Multiple Sclerosis 
• Therapeutic strategies for CNS remyelination

Methods of Investigation:

• Primary cultures of CNS progenitors
• Human tumor cell lines
• Gene transfer
• Immunohistochemistry
• Digital Imaging and data processing
• Molecular Biology (DNA, RNA isolation, chromatin isolation, PCR, etc.)
• Biochemical Analysis of proteins (Western Blot, immunoprecipitation etc.)
• Stereotactic Injection in rodent brain
• Phenotypic analysis of knockout animals

Active Grant Support:

1. National Institutes of Health NINDS(R01)
2. National Multiple Sclerosis Society
3. Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation
4. Christropher and Dana Reeve Foundation
5. New Jersey Commission for Science and Technology
6. New Jersey Commission for the Study of Traumatic Brain Injury

Meet the PI and other  lab members

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