Basic Science Mentor
Joseph J. Bagnor/Shands Professor of Medical Research Department of Neurological Surgery
College of Medicine
Dennis A. Steindler, PhD, served as the Executive Director of the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida from 2004 until 2010, and currently is the Joseph J. Bagnor/Shands Professor of Medical Research in the Department of Neurological Surgery of the University of Florida College of Medicine.. The major research goal of Dr. Steindler’s program is to develop stem cell therapies for the treatment of debilitating neurological diseases. There is widespread interest in the use of stem cells for cell replacement therapies in human neurological disease. However, we have only begun to appreciate the cell and molecular biology of these cells which hold great promise for transplantation or other therapeutics. Dr. Steindler is also using new molecular approaches to characterize novel developmental genes involved in neurogenesis, cell survival and cell death. The main strategy of these studies is to exploit well-known approaches for gaining access to signaling pathways that direct cell survival, proliferation, and fate determination. As gene expression profiles are refined, future approaches can rely on stem/progenitor cells as vehicles for gene therapy in neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Steindler is funded by grants from NIH (NHLBI and NINDS.) He also previously mentored graduated trainee Noah Walton.