Chi Him Eddie Ma, D. Phil. Research Fellow Neural Plasticity Research Group Harvard Medical School 149 13th Street Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129 E-mail: CHMA@PARTNERS.ORG TEL: 617-724-3633 FAX: 617-724-3632

Research Summary

Background

I took my BSc (Biology) degree at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and an M.Phil degree (Molecular Endocrinology) at the University of Hong Kong. In 2005, I obtained my D.Phil degree from Oxford majoring in Neuroscience. I have a keen interest in understanding the failure of CNS repair after damage. My thesis has been examining how factors made by Schwann cells can promote CNS and PNS regeneration. In 2005, I joined Dr. Woolf’s lab as a research fellow.

Research

My research interests lie in the sensory neuron survival and regeneration after peripheral nerve injury. We have reported that HSP27 mRNA and protein expression level is dramatically increased after peripheral nerve injury (Costigan et al., 1998). In adult rats the Hsp27 is induced and phosphorylated in all injured sensory and motor neurons after a peripheral nerve lesion and all the injured neurons survive the lesion. In the newborn rat, however, Hsp27 increases in only a small number of motor neurons. Those neurons that express Hsp27 survive, while all the other injured neuron die by cell suicide, or programmed cell death. The data suggests that Hsp27 is an essential survival factor for sensory and motor neurons that prevent the activation of apoptosis by binding to cytoplasmic cytochrome c (Benn et al., 2002). Hsp27 overexpressing mouse is generated based on the notion that Hsp27 is a survival factor for neurons. Hsp27 is expressed under a neuronal specific promoter Thy1.2. Sensory neurons survival and regeneration after injury will be analyzed in those Hsp27 Transgenic mice.