Fred H. Gage
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
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Primary Section: 28, Systems Neuroscience Secondary Section: 24, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2003)
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Biosketch
President and Adler Professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, Salk Institute. Joined the Salk Institute in 1995. Received Ph.D. in 1976 from The Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining Salk, Dr. Gage was a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego and remains an Adjunct Professor. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Gage served as President of the Society for Neuroscience in 2002, and President for the International Society for Stem Cell Research in 2012.
Research Interests
My research concentrates on the unexpected plasticity observed in the adult brain. My lab demonstrated that neural stem cells exist in the adult hippocampus, can give rise to neurons that are physiologically active, and are causally involved in learning and memory. Importantly, we showed that, contrary to longstanding dogma, neurogenesis does occur in the adult human brain. To study human neurogenesis my team developed human neuron models, which have revealed differences associated with human psychiatric disease and neurodegenerative diseases. We also discovered that mobile elements (moveable DNA sequences) are active during neurogenesis, and this leads to genomic mosaicism (organs and organisms being composed of genetically different cells), which contributes to plasticity, adaptability and diversity in the brain and evolution.
