(mentions CMT) U.Va. Biology Professor Earns Basil O'Connor Research Award

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U.Va. Biology Professor Earns Basil O'Connor Research Award

http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=14361

March 2, 2011 — The March of Dimes has awarded University of Virginia biologist

Kucenas a $150,000, two-year Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award

to further her investigations into the role of glial cells in the construction

and maintenance of the peripheral nervous system – work that could have

long-term implications for the understanding and treatment of various diseases

and birth defects.

Glial cells are a specialized type of cell that help neurons survive and

function optimally. One class of glial cells is able to leave the central

nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) and migrate into the peripheral

nervous system (sensory organs, motor and sensory nerves and glands) as part of

a complex coordinated system. It is these cells that Kucenas and her lab are

most excited to study.

" Our lab is generally interested in how the nervous system is assembled and

maintained; specifically, we're investigating the role of glial cells in

formation of the nervous system early in development, and how the nervous system

is preserved during disease and injury, " said Kucenas, an assistant professor of

biology in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Understanding these processes could lead to new treatments for a variety of

birth defects as well as diseases such as multiple sclerosis and

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Formation of a functional nervous system requires the coordinated interactions

of several types of cells, which are derived from distinct precursor cells.

These cells must migrate – often great distances – to specific locations in the

body. They must then identify each other and coordinate their differentiation so

that information, in the form of action potentials, can pass between the

peripheral nervous system and the brain.

" We are investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate motor

nerve formation, " Kucenas said. " This should provide important insights into the

developmental programs that assemble and maintain functional nervous systems. "

A major difference between the central and peripheral nervous systems is that

each has its own type of glial cells. In a healthy body, glial cells are tightly

segregated and aren't known to travel between the two systems. The peripheral

nervous system also regenerates more readily than the central nervous system,

due in part to its glial cells – a characteristic that, if better understood,

Kucenas said, might be used to improve the regenerative capabilities of the

central nervous system.

" The long-term goal of the work in the lab is to understand the development of

spinal motor nerve components and how cell-cell interactions result in

coordinated differentiation and the maintenance and regeneration of nerves, " she

said.

Kucenas uses transparent and transgenic zebrafish as a model system because they

provide the unique opportunity to combine genetic manipulation with in vivo,

time-lapse imaging to study glial cell contribution to the nervous system.

The March of Dimes is a foundation that, among other activities, funds research

to discover the genetic causes of birth defects. The Basil O'Connor Starter

Scholar Research Awards – created in 1973 and named for the first March of Dimes

chairman and president – provide funding to young investigators with promising

new research related to the organization's mission.

Kucenas came to U.Va. in 2009 after a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt

University.