"Each member of our team has made significant contributions to the advancement of their respective fields of research and will now be able to devote substantial efforts to integrating their work and developing methods of using neuro-vascular regeneration to help stroke victims," Hirschi said.

The project team members come from diverse and complementary areas of expertise in developmental neurobiology and vascular biology, stem cell biology, genetics, biomedical imaging, tissue engineering, and clinical cellular therapies. Spanning fields of science that include cell and molecular biology, animal models of disease, and hopefully human clinical trials, the "Neuro-Vascular Regeneration" project falls in line with the NIH roadmap for the development of multi-disciplinary and translational science.

The BCM team also includes project co-developer Mary Dickinson, assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at BCM; Dr. Thomas Zwaka, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at BCM; and Malcolm Brenner, professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at BCM.

Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the division of developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, serves as co-principal investigator of the project. Other investigators in London include Jack Price and Mike Modo, both of the Centre for the Cellular Basis of Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College.

'"/>

Contact: Jade Boyd
jadeboyd@rice.edu
713-348-6778
Rice University
9-Oct-2006