Center for Aging and Developmental Biology

Handy Gelbard, M.D., Ph.D.
Interim Director, Center for Aging and Developmental Biology
Harris_Gelbard@urmc.rochester.edu

The Center for Aging and Developmental Biology (CADB) at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry is home to Principal Investigators (P.I.’s), their respective laboratories, and to a host of related adjunct faculty in collaborative projects with the Principal Investigators.  Centers within the School of Medicine and Dentistry bring Faculty together with primary focus in particular areas of biomedical research. Center Faculty have primary appointments across a variety of departments, namely, Neurology, Pediatrics, Biomedical Genetics, Opthalmology and Biochemistry and Biophysics. While the P.I.’s come from very different scientific backgrounds, research questions of the CADB faculty are thematically focused on Neuroscience, with each member being a part of the inter-departmental graduate program in Neuroscience.  More specifically, as one looks at the research performed in the Center there is a common interest in the “synapse” in its broadest definition.  Much has changed since Charles Sherrington and John Eccles studied the synapse from a neuronocentric viewpoint.  Center Faculty are using a broad investigative approach centered around the synapse, whether it be synaptogenesis, synapse function, synapse loss and degeneration or synaptic protection.  Many of these research programs have components that translate basic research findings into clinically relevant diagnostic and therapeutic strategies applicable to disease of the nervous system, but all research programs in the CADB investigate aspects of intracellular, intercellular, and transcellular communication in the nervous system in health, development, and disease. 

Faculty

William J. Bowers, PhD
Inflammatory Mechanisms Underlying Neurodegenerative Disorders

Paul D. Coleman, PhD

Lin Gan, PhD
Transcription factors in pattern formation and cell differentiation of nervous system

Harris Gelbard, M.D., PhD
Interactions between glial cells with immune effector functions and synapses

Roman J. Giger, PhD

David Pearce, PhD
Yeast and mouse models for genetically inherited pediatric neurodegenerative disorders

Douglas S. Portman, PhD
Sex differences in neural development and function in C. elegans

David Rempe, M.D., PhD
Hypoxia-induced adaptive and pathological responses in brain.

Nina F. Schor, M.D., PhD
Targeted therapy for neural crest tumors; cell signaling in neurodegenerative disease