Axon Guidance and Neural Connectivity Unit - Division of Intramural Research

 Edward   Giniger  Ph.D., Investigator

Dr Giniger received his BS from Yale University (1979) and his PhD from Harvard (1988), the latter studying the yeast regulatory protein, GAL4, with Dr Mark Ptashne. Dr Giniger then turned to postdoctoral work with Dr Yuh Nung Jan at UCSF. There, he initiated a two-pronged series of studies of axon guidance in Drosophila, investigating the mechanism by which a particular cell surface receptor (Notch) guides developing axons, and also how one transcription factor (Lola) coordinates the effects of many guidance receptors to ensure the accuracy of neural wiring. Dr Giniger continued this work while on the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle, WA, prior to joining NINDS as an Investigator in 2004. Dr Giniger continues to study both the mechanism and the basis of fidelity in axon guidance, while also expanding his focus to investigate the role of developmental genes in adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Interests

To understand how the nervous system gets wired-up during development, we need to ask a few, related questions: 1. What is the mechanism by which a single guidance receptor directs the growth of an axon? 2. How are the signals from many receptors integrated in the growth cone? 3. Why doesn't this complex machine make mistakes? We use classical and molecular genetics, in vitro biochemistry, genomic approaches and in vivo imaging to attack these questions in the Drosophila nervous system.

Selected Recent Publications

Le Gall, M. and Giniger, E.
Identification of two binding regions for the Suppressor of Hairless protein within the intracellular domain of Drosophila Notch - J. Biol. Chem   279 29418-29426 2004

Horiuchi, T. Giniger, E. and Aigaki, T.
Alternative trans-splicing of constant and variable exons of a Drosophila axon guidance gene, lola - Genes Dev   17 2496-2501 2003

Goeke, S., Greene, E.A., Gates, M.A., Grant, P.K., Crowner, D., Aigaki, T. and Giniger, E.
Alternative splicing of lola generates 19 transcription factors controlling axon guidance in Drosophila - Nature Neuroscience   6 917-924 2003

Crowner, D., Le Gall, M., Gates, M.A., and Giniger, E.
Notch steers Drosophila ISNb motor axons by regulating the Abl signaling pathway - Curr Biol   13 967-972 2003

Crowner, D., Madden, K., Goeke, S. and Giniger, E.
Lola regulates midline crossing of CNS axons in Drosophila - Development  129 1317-1325 2002

Giniger, E.
How do Rho family GTPases direct axon growth and guidance? A proposal relating signaling pathways to growth cone mechanics - Differentiation   70 385-396 2002

Selected Earlier Publications

Contact Information

Axon guidance and neural connectivity Unit, NINDS Building 37, Room 1016A, MSC 4478  9000 Rockville Pike   Bethesda MD  20892-4478

Telephone: 301-451- 3890 (office), 301- 451-3890 (laboratory), 301-480- 1485 (fax), Email: ginigere@ninds.nih.gov