Clifton Ragsdale, PhD

Appointments:

Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology,
     Pharmacology and Physiology
Department of Organismal Biology
     and Anatomy
The College

Committee on Cancer Biology
Committee on Developmental Biology
Committee on Neurobiology

Education:

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of
     Technology, 1988

Contact:

Phone:  (773) 702-9609

Lab:       (773) 702-2896

Fax:       (773) 702-3774

E-Mail:
cliff@drugs.bsd.uchicago.edu

Address:

The University of Chicago
Ab216, (MC 0926)
947 East 58th St.
Chicago, Illinois 60637

Website:

http://ragslab.bsd.uchicago.edu/

Related Research Interests:

Cell Cycle

Cell Differentiation/Development

Gene Regulation/Expression

Transcriptional Regulation

Clifton Ragsdale, Ph.D.


Molecular Genetic Control of Brain Development and Differentiation

Research Summary

In vertebrate brains, neurons with similar connections are aggregated into neural centers known as nuclei. Dozens of nuclei can be distinguished in the brains of birds and mammals, and connections among neurons in these brains are in essence connections targeted to different nuclei. Viewed from this perspective, the problem of how neurons make the correct connections with one another in early development is in part a problem of pattern formation: how are neurons assigned to different nuclear fates? and how are nuclei formed? My research is carried out in chicks and mice. The chick brain is accessible throughout development for fate mapping and cell lineage studies, microsurgical manipulation including tissue transplants, and manipulation of gene expression by recombinant retrovirus infection and in vivo electroporation. Research on the mouse embryo offers a broad range of reverse genetic technologies and many established mutant lines. A major focus of my current work is on size control and cell-type specification in the vertebrate midbrain, a principal division of the central nervous system.


Selected Papers

Agarwala S, Sanders TA and Ragsdale CW. (2001). Sonic Hedgehog control of size and shape in midbrain pattern formation. Science 291: 2147-2150. Full Text

Sanders TA, Lumsden A and Ragsdale CW. (2002) . Arcuate plan of chick midbrain development. J. Neuroscience 22, 10742-10750. Full Text

Agarwala S and Ragsdale CW. (2002). A role for midbrain arcs in nucleogenesis. Development 129, 5779-5788. Full Text

Assimacopoulos S, Grove EA and Ragsdale CW. (2003). Identification of a Pax6-dependent epidermal growth factor family signaling source at the lateral edge of the embryonic cerebral cortex. J. Neuroscience 23, 6399-6403. Full Text

Agarwala S, Aglyamova GV, Marma AK, Fallon JF and Ragsdale CW. (2005). Differential susceptibility of midbrain and spinal cord patterning to floor plate defects in the talpid mutant. Developmental Biology 288, 206-220.

 

Faculty and Research

Programs

Cancer Biology


CCB

Immunology


COI

Microbiology


COM

Molecular Metabolism
and Nutrition


CMMN

Molecular Pathogenesis and
Molecular Medicine


MPMM