Associate Professor of Pathology (Neuropathology)

Contact: James W. Mandell, M.D., Ph.D. jwm2m@virginia.edu

Laboratory Interests: Molecular signals involved in the triggering and maintenance of astrogliosis, the ubiquitous reaction of astrocytes to neural damage.

Research Projects:

1. Conditional knockout approaches to study roles of ERK and p38 MAP kinase pathways in astrogliosis.
2. Functional interactions of MAP kinases with the astrocyte intermediate filament cytoskeleton
3. Dynamic imaging of glial cell motility in in vivo models of injury
4. Investigation of novel tissue biomarkers for diagnosis of astrocytomas, including applications of phosphorylation state-specific antibodies

What you will learn on this rotation:
Methods: Primary mouse neural cell culture, cDNA transfection, basic protein biochemistry methods, immunofluorescence microscopy, mouse transgenic colony maintenance, PCR genotyping, mouse brain anatomy and histology, immunohistochemistry.

Principles:

1. The complexity of astrocyte responses to brain injury and neural damage.
2. Functional relationships of astrocytes and other brain cells
3. The interplay of diagnostic neuropathology and bench research on glial cell biology.