Keeping a clear mind
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A hotbed of activity
Her spacious lab in the new East Research Building— near many of her colleagues in the Laboratory’s growing, highly interactive neurobiology group—is a hotbed of activity, often round-the-clock, with six postdocs, one graduate student and two research staff.
Dr. Ackerman works closely with her trainees and research staff in designing experiments for the multiple research projects under way into the mechanisms underlying defects in the development and maintenance of neurons in the cerebellum, the region of the brain responsible for motor control and balance.Dr. Ackerman’s research, enabled by the Laboratory’s wealth of resources for investigating neurological disorders, has consistently resulted in advances in neuroscience that have been published in such major, peer-reviewed journals as Nature, Nature Genetics, Journal of Neuroscience and Development—more than 40 publications since she arrived at the Laboratory.
An early project, still ongoing in her lab, targeted cell migration defects in the cerebellum during development, implicated in human disorders such as severe mental retardation and epilepsy. In 1997, she identified a gene mutation that disrupts the critical process during embryonic development in which newly born neurons migrate to precise locations in the brain and are wired into the intricate circuit that ensures proper brain function.
In 2002, Dr. Ackerman was investigating the harlequin mouse, which after maturity displays progressive movement problems, or ataxia, due to impaired cerebellar function. She identified a gene that was previously thought to promote cell death, but Dr. Ackerman showed for the first time that it is actually necessary for neuron protection and survival. The protective mechanism shields the neurons from damage that has been implicated to date in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and may also be involved in other age-related neurodegenerative diseases and in tumor development.
