Noah Walton
Research Associate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Chicago
Postdoctoral Fellow, (Neuroscience Department), University of Florida
PhD, Biomedical Sciences (Neuroscience concentration), University of Florida
BS, Biology, concentration in Genetics; Minors: Chemistry and Sociology,
Duke University

Student Profile:
Noah was enrolled in the IDP program from 2003-2006 and entered the NMPT training program during his second year. He received his BS in Biology with a concentration in genetics from Duke University. During his graduate training Noah was primarily mentored by Dr. Dennis Steindler, the current Executive Director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute. Noah showed an exceptional level of scholarly productivity and published his work in prestigious journals, such as PNAS. One of his papers (Development 2006) received a great deal of national attention and was picked up by several media outlets, including “Discovery Channel News”, “Science Daily”, and “Newswise”. Noah graduated in the summer of 2006 and accepted a research position at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago in 2007.

Research Project Description:
Noah’s research during his pre-doctoral training focused on the maintenance, differentiation, and characterization of adult neural stem cells. Neural stem cells of the postnatal mammalian forebrain have generated recent interest as a donor source of replacement material for damaged or injured neural tissue. Using culture conditions for expansion of neural stem cells, Noah devised a method to dramatically expand postnatal human brain tissue in vitro. He purified and grew the adult human neural progenitors from mature human brain tissue acquired from patients who underwent surgical treatment for epilepsy. The cells were extracted from support tissue within the gray matter, which is not known for harboring stem cells. Furthermore, he coaxed these pedestrian human cells to produce large amounts of new brain cells in culture and when the cells from the epilepsy patients were transplanted into mice, bypassing any growth enhancements, they were able to take cues from their surroundings and produce new neurons. These findings documented for the first time the ability of common human brain cells to morph into different cell types, a previously unknown characteristic. It is anticipated that these cells may serve as the basis for a transplantable population in scenarios of injury or disease, or may be genetically modified ex vivo to provide neuroprotective agents upon re-transplantation. Noah hopes that in the near future stem cell therapies can be used in conjunction with rehabilitation interventions to promote neural plasticity and recovery of the central nervous system following injury and/or disease.

Patents
• Culturing and Differentiating Neural Precurson Cells. Docket #61639(49163). Filed 9/29/2004
• Indefinite Culture of Human Adult Glia Without Immortalization and Therapeutic Uses Thereof. Docket #5853-567. Filed 9/19/2004

Award and Honors
2004 2nd place University of Florida Department of Neuroscience Medical Guild Research Competition
2003-2006 University of Florida, Dean’s List
2006 1st place 2006 Volkswagen Stiftung Route 28 Theoretical Research Design Competition

Quote from Noah Walton on how he benefited from participation in the NMPT program: “In addition to the financial support offered by the T32 training grant, I felt there were several less tangible but important benefits of my participation. First and foremost, this program fostered interactions bridging the basic science research to clinical interventions. As a basic researcher this interaction helped me in directing my efforts to work on solutions that are actually in demand by frontline health professionals. I definitely gained a strong appreciation for rehabilitation interventions and clinical research studies. The NMPT program also drove my decision to work with human cells from patients rather than animal cells during my dissertation. In my future research efforts I want to work closer to the therapeutic side of things.”

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