David Lin - Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Cornell University

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David Lin
Associate Professor of Neurobiology

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Phone: 607 253 4360
E-mail: dml45@cornell.edu

The development of the nervous system involves a series of decisions and choices. How do neurons and glia, the two major cell-types in the brain, arise from uncommitted progenitor cells? Once neurons are formed, what guides their differentiation into specific neuronal sub-types? And finally, how do these neurons find and connect with their proper synaptic partners elsewhere in the brain? My lab studies these fundamental developmental questions using the mouse olfactory system as a model. The olfactory system is also one of just three places in the nervous system where continual regeneration occurs during adulthood. How is regeneration controlled? And how does this process differ in the adult from that during development? We use genetic and genomic techniques as complementary approaches towards studying these questions. Our genetic analysis uses mouse mutants in various pathways to study their effects upon cell fate, differentiation, and axon guidance. Our genomic approaches include laser microdissection, single-cell RNA amplification, and microarrays. The lab also oversees the microarray Core facility for the campus. And finally, we use tissue culture to study the effects of manipulating levels of gene expression upon differentiation. Together, these approaches allow us to examine the molecular basis for the decisions that guide the formation of the nervous system, as well as processes that affect neurodegeneration and regeneration.

Please visit the lab website at: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/dml45/.

Field memberships: Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Genetics and Development, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Genomics, Neurobiology and Behavior.

Select Publications

Rodriguez, S., Sickles, H.M., DeLeonardis, C., Gridley, T., and Lin, D.M. Notch2 functions in the adult mouse main olfactory system to maintain glial fate. In press, Developmental Biology (2007) - cover illustration.
Williams, E., Xiao, Y., Sickles, H., Shafer, P., Yona, G., Yang, Y.H., and Lin, D.M. Spatial and temporal molecular heterogeneity in the developing mouse olfactory bulb. BMC Developmental Biology (2007) 7:48.
Moran-Mirabal, J., Tan, C.P., Orth, R., Williams, E., Craighead, H., and Lin, D.M. Controlling microarray spot morphology with lift-off polymer arrays. Analytical Chemistry (2007) 79(3):1109-14.
Lin, D.M., Loveall, B., Ewer, J., Deitcher, D.L., Sucher, N.J. Characterization of mRNA expression in single neurons. Methods in Molecular Biology, Borsello, T. ed. (2007):321.