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November 09, 2006
Dr. Joel Glover, Coordinator, Brainstem Genetics Consortium, and Professor of Anatomy, University of Oslo, 11-10-06
Dr. Joel Glover was inspired to study marine biology through the television programs and films of Jacque Cousteau. He was introduced to neurobiology while studying biology at UC San Diego, and became fascinated by the question of how the nervous system generates behavior in marine invertebrates. He entered the UC Berkeley Graduate Program in Neurobiology in 1978, studying the behavior and neural development of the leech under Gunther Stent and Bill Kristan. He received his Ph.D. in 1984.
Dr. Glover’s first postdoctoral research was with Jan Jansen at the Department of Physiology, University of Oslo, studying the development of the vertebrate brainstem and spinal cord. His second postdoc was with Josh Sanes at Washington University in St. Louis, using retroviruses to target neural progenitors in the vertebrate brain for studying patterns of neuronal generation and migration.
Dr. Glover returned to the Department of Physiology, University of Oslo in 1987 and continued research on brainstem and spinal cord development. He was appointed Associate Professor 1994 at the Department of Anatomy, University of Oslo, and appointed Professor in 1996. He returned to the Department of Physiology in 2000.
Dr. Glover’s main research interests include brainstem and spinal cord development, spinal cord regeneration, and the use of stem cells to generate neurons for potential treatments of brain and spinal cord pathologies. He has been Adjunct Professor at the Sars Center for Marine Molecular Biology at the University of Bergen since 2000, doing research on the evolution of the vertebrate brain through studies of the development of primitive chordate nervous systems.
The Glover lab has in recent years focused increasingly on the use of imaging techniques, in which the activity of neurons is translated into optical signals that can be recorded with high-resolution cameras and other imaging devices. Such approaches promise to revolutionize the study of nervous system development by allowing entire neural circuits to be studied at once, instead of piecemeal neuron by neuron. The lab has existed as a separate entity since 1994, and comprises today 13 members in addition to Dr. Glover. Major current efforts are devoted to the development of motor circuits in the brainstem and spinal cord, particularly within the vestibular and locomotory systems, and the use of embryonic microenvironments to stimulate adult human somatic stem cells to differentiate into neurons as a potential means of generating neurons for treating brain and spinal cord diseases and injuries.
Posted by David Lemberg at November 9, 2006 08:17 AM Return to SCIENCE AND SOCIETY home page