Cell & Developmental Biology
faculty photo

Jonathan A. Raper, Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience
Department: Neuroscience
Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information
105 Johnson Pavilion
Department of Neuroscience
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021
Office: 215-898-2180
Education:
B.A. (Psychology)
Harvard College , 1974.
Ph.D. (Cellular Neurophysiology with Daniel Hartline)
University of California at San Diego, 1979.
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Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests
developmental neurobiology, especially axon guidance

Key words: axon guidance, developmental neurobiology, Molecular biology; tissue culture; Protein biochemistry; Videomicroscopy, expression cloning; mouse, chick, zebrafish.

Description of Research
My laboratory is focused on defining and characterizing the cues that guide growing axons to their targets in the developing nervous system. We are working with embryonic zebrafish to study the development of the primary olfactory projection. We have developed transgenic lines of fish in which specific subsets of olfactory neurons project to well defined, identifiable target locations in the olfactory bulb. We are using these transgenic lines crossed into mutant lines to study the role of candidate guidance cues in axon guidance.

Selected Publications

Lakhina V, Marcaccio CL, Shao X, Lush ME, Jain RA, Fujimoto E, Bonkowsky JL, Granato M, Raper JA.: Netrin/DCC signaling guides olfactory sensory axons to their correct location in the olfactory bulb. J Neurosci. 32(13): 4440-56, 2012.

Twery EN, Raper JA.: SDF1-induced antagonism of axonal repulsion requires multiple G-protein coupled signaling components that work in parallel. PLoS One 6(4): e18896, 2011.

Xu, H., S.G. Leinwand, A.L. Dell, E. Fried-Cassorla, and J.A. Raper: The calmodulin-stimulated adenylate cyclase ADCY8 sets the sensssssitivity of zebrafish retinal axons to midline repellents and it required for normal midline crossing. J. Neurosci. 30: 7423-7433, 2010.

Raper, JA and C. Mason: Cellular Strategies of Axonal Pathfinding. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2:a001933, 2010.

Kapfhammer JP, Xu H, Raper JA.: The detection and quantification of growth cone collapsing activities. Nat Protoc. 2(8): 2005-2011, 2008.

Chalasani, S.H., A. Sabol, H. Xu, M.A. Gyda, K. Rasband, M. Granato, C-B. Chien, and J.A. Raper: Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1 antagonizes Slit/Robo signaling in vivo. J. Neurosci. 27: 293-80, 2007.

Jia,L., L. Cheng, and J.A.Raper : Slit/Robo signaling is necessary to confine early neural crest cells to the ventral migratory pathway in the trunk. Dev. Biol 282: 411-421, 2005.

Chalasani S.H., F. Baribaud, C.M. Coughlan, M.J. Sunshine, V.M.Y. Lee, R.W. Doms, D.R. Littman and J.A. Raper: The chemokine SDF-1 promotes the survival of embryonic retinal ganglion cells. J. Neurosci. 23: 4601-12, 2003.

Chalasani, S.H., K.A. Sabelko, M.J. Sunshine, D.R. Littman, and J.A. Raper : A chemokine, SDF-1, reduces the effectiveness of multiple axonal repellents and is required for normal axon pathfinding. J Neurosci. Page: 1360-7, 2003.

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Last updated: 09/28/2017
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Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
1150 BRB II
421 Currie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: (215) 573-9306
Fax: (215) 898-9871