Greg J. Bashaw
Associate Professor, Dept of Neuroscience

Developmental, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Program

Address

1113 Biomedical Rsch Bldg (BRB) II/III (Office)
1124 Biomedical Rsch Bldg (BRB) II/III (Lab)
421 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Office tel.: 215 898-0829
Lab tel.: 215 898-0854
Fax: 215 573-7601
E-mail: gbashaw@mail.med.upenn.edu

Link(s)

Dr. Bashaw's Neuroscience Page

Education

Brown University: BA (Biological Sciences), 1990.

Stanford University: PhD (Biological Sciences), 1997.

UC Berkeley: Postdoctoral Research (Developmental Neuroscience - Axon Guidance), 2001.

Research Interests

• Molecular mechanisms of axon growth and guidance during nervous system development.
• How axon guidance receptors specify attractive and repulsive signals and transmit these signals to the navigating growth cone to generate a directed motile response.

Key words: Axon guidance, developmental neuroscience, Slit, Robo, Netrin.

Search PubMed for articles

Description of Research

How axons in the developing nervous system successfully navigate to their correct targets is a fundamental problem in neurobiology. Understanding the mechanisms that mediate axon guidance will give important insight into how the nervous system is correctly wired during development and may have implications for therapeutic approaches to developmental brain disorders and nerve regeneration. Achieving this understanding will require unraveling the molecular logic that ensures the proper expression and localization of axon guidance cues and receptors, and elucidating the signaling events that regulate the growth cone cytoskeleton in response to guidance receptor activation.

The Slit ligand and Roundabout (Robo) receptors, and the Netrin ligand and DCC/UNC5 receptors are two important evolutionary conserved ligand/receptor systems that contribute to proper connectivity in both the vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems. These molecules are also known to influence neuronal and mesodermal cell migration, suggesting that determining their function may have broad implications for understanding diseases of nervous system development, many of which have their root in defective cell migration and/or axon guidance. The research in my laboratory addresses the dynamics of axon guidance receptor expression and signaling, and exploits the powerful genetic and molecular approaches available in Drosophila.

Recent Publications

Hu, H., Li, M., Labrador, J.P., McEwen, J., Lai, E.C., Goodman, C.S. and Bashaw, G.J. (2005) Cross GAP/Vilse Links the Roundabout Receptor to Rac to Regulate Midline Repulsion. PNAS 102, 4613-4618.

Labrador, J.P., O’Keefe, D., Yoshikawa, S., McKinnon, R.D., Thomas, J.B. and Bashaw, G.J. (2005). The Homeobox Transcription Factor Even-skipped Regulates Netrin-Receptor Expression to Control Dorsal Motor-Axon Projections in Drosophila. Current Biology 15, 1-7.

Yang, L and Bashaw, G.J. (2006). Son of Sevenless directly links the Robo receptor to Rac activation to control axon repulsion at the midline. Neuron, 52, 595-607.

Garbe, D.S., Das, A, Dubreuil, R.R. and Bashaw, G.J. (2007). Beta Spectrin functions independently of Ankyrin to regulate the establishment and maintenance of axon connections in the Drosophila embryonic CNS. Development, 134, 273-284.

Garbe, D.S. and Bashaw, G.J. (2007). Independent Functions of Slit-Robo Repulsion and Netrin-Frazzled Attraction Regulate Axon Crossing at the Midline in Drosophila. Journal of Neuroscience, 27 (13), 3584-3592.

Lab

Rotation Projects

A range of projects relating to axon guidance receptor regulation and signaling, employing a broad range of techniques in genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry. For specific projects contact Dr. Bashaw.

Lab personnel:

Ming Li, Biology Graduate Student
Long Yang, Neuroscience Graduate Student
Hope Coleman, Neuroscience Graduate Student
Michael O'Donnell, CAMB Graduate Student
Timothy Evans, Ph.D. Post-doctoral Fellow