Associate Professor - Department of Neuroscience Associate Professor - Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1999 One Baylor Plaza Baylor College of Medicine Houston TX, 77030 Telephone: 713-798-4494 - Fax: 713-798-3946 Email: rasband@bcm.tmc.edu Website: neuro.bcm.edu/rasbandlab

The long range goals of Dr. Rasband’s lab are to elucidate the processes that underlie the molecular assembly of electrogenic compartments of axons and the role that myelinating cells (oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells) play in this process in health and in disease.  The Rasband lab explores the molecular basis of signaling between glial cells and axons in the brain and spinal cord under a variety of conditions including the normal process of myelination that occurs during development, demyelination and remyelination in disorders such as multiple sclerosis and the responses of axons and their myelinating cells to injuries of various types, including trauma.  Dr. Rasband’s laboratory is working to understand the underlying mechanisms that regulate the clustering of ion channels at the sites that initiate and propagate action potentials:  the axon initial segment and nodes of Ranvier.  Many nervous system diseases and injuries result in the disruption of these domains.  For example, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury (TBI and SCI), as well as demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis result in widespread axonal injury. It is now appreciated that a host of molecular events occurs that ultimately results in the disruption of axons and their excitable domains. One particularly sensitive component of axons is the spectrin/ankyrin based cytoskeleton.   Spectrins and ankyrins are highly enriched at axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier and are essential for maintaining both the high-density cluster of ion channels.  Dr. Rasband’s research team is working to uncover the molecular mechanisms regulating formation and maintenance of ion channel clusters in axons since any therapeutic strategy aimed at nervous system repair and/or regeneration will require the re-establishment of these excitable domains.

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DP Schafer, S Jha, F Liu, T Akella, LD McCullough, and MN Rasband.  Disruption of the axon initial segment is a new mechanism for neuronal injury.  Journal of Neuroscience 29:13242-13254 (2009).

KL Hedstrom, Y Ogawa, and MN Rasband. AnkyrinG is required for maintenance of the axon initial segment and neuronal polarity. Journal of Cell Biology  183:635-640 (2008).

Y Ogawa, I Horresh, JS Trimmer, DS Bredt, E Peles, and MN Rasband.  Postsynaptic density-93 clusters Kv1 channels at axon initial segments independently of Caspr2. Journal of Neuroscience, 28:5731-5739 (2008).

KL Hedstrom, X Xu, Y Ogawa, R Frischknecht, CI Seidenbecher, P Shrager, and MN Rasband.  Neurofascin assembles a specialized extracellular matrix at the axon initial segment. Journal of Cell Biology, 178:875-886 (2007).

I Spiegel, K Adamsky, Y Eshed, R Milo, O Sarig-Nadir, I Horresh, SS Scherer, MN Rasband and E Peles. A central role for Necl4/SynCAM4 in Schwann cell-axon interaction and myelination. Nature Neuroscience, 10:861-869 (2007).

Y Yang, Y Ogawa, KL Hedstrom, and MN Rasband.  βIV spectrin is recruited to axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier by AnkyrinG.  Journal of Cell Biology. 176:509-519 (2007).

Y Ogawa, DP Schafer, I Horresh, V Bar, K Hales, Y Yang, K Susuki, E Peles, MC  Stankewich, and MN Rasband. Spectrins and ankyrinB constitute a specialized paranodal cytoskeleton. Journal of Neuroscience, 26:5230-5239 (2006).

Y Yang, S Lacas-Gervais, DK Morest, M Solimena, and MN Rasband.  bIV Spectrins are Essential for Membrane Stability and the Molecular Organization of Nodes of Ranvier.  Journal of Neuroscience, 24:9230-9240 (2004).

DP Schafer, R Bansal, KL Hedstrom, SE Pfeiffer, and MN Rasband.  Does Paranode Formation and Maintenance Require Partitioning of Neurofascin 155 into Lipid Rafts?  Journal of Neuroscience, 24:3176- 3185  (2004).

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Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (2006-2011).

International Society for Neurochemistry Young Scientist Lectureship Award (2005).

Recipient of the Jordi-Folch Pi Young Investigator Award, American Society for Neurochemistry (2005).

Wadsworth Foundation Young Investigator Award (2002-2005).

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• Kelli Baalman (Neuroscience)
• Shelly Buffington (Neuroscience)
• Kae-Jiun Chang (Developmental Biology)
• Szu Yu (Tammy) Ho (Developmental Biology)

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Node of Ranvier triple labeled for Na+ channels (green), K+ channels (blue), and the axonal cell adhesion molecule Caspr (red).

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