Nechiporuk lab home page

Alex Nechiporuk laboratory

Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology

How to find us:

OHSU
School of Medicine
Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd
Basic Sciences L215
Portland, OR 97239

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Research Goals

Our lab is interested in understanding how naïve progenitor cells segregate to give rise to diverse cell types that eventually form an organ. The question of organ formation is even more profound and challenging when applied to a vertebrate nervous system, where hundreds of cell types exist. We address this question in the context of cranial placodes , placode-derived sensory ganglia, and zebrafish lateral line system. Development of placode-derived sensory components of the peripheral nervous system are essential for the formation of cranial sensory systems such as somatosensation and taste. The improper development of the cranial sensory system has been implicated in many human disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, migraines, bladder overactivity, erectile dysfunction, heart failure, arrhythmia, and others. Thus, uncovering genes that specify cranial placodes and ganglia should provide better understanding for the mechanisms underlying these processes.

The mechanosensory lateral line system of aquatic vertebrates is used to detect displacement of water and controls various types of swimming behavior. The lateral line provides an excellent system for studying basic biological processes, such as collective cell migration, (see lateral line primordium migration movie) and specification, organ morphogenesis and patterning in the genetically-tractable model system such as zebrafish.

Axonal transport

We have developed zebrafish as a model system for studying axonal transport (see our recent publication). Within individual neurons, various types of cargo must be actively transported to specific compartments. For example, in the axon, synaptic proteins are targeted to axon terminals, while growth factors are often transported back to the cell body. This is accomplished primarily by microtubule-based transport mediated by two types of molecular motors, kinesins and dyneins, that respectively move cargo away from and towards the cell body. Various types of vesicles and organelles are moved by fast transport both in anterograde and retrograde directions at speeds of 0.5-10 μm/sec. (read more).

Model System

zebrafish picture

Zebrafish has emerged as a powerful model system for understanding vertebrate development. In addition to experimental embryology, zebrafish is one of the few vertebrate model systems that are easily amenable to classical genetic approaches. Advantages of zebrafish include:

small size
relatively short generation times
embryo transparency
external development allowing easy manipulation
advanced genetics, including transgenesis and mutagenesis,
full-length, annotated genome nearing completion.

We use many of these advantages as well as lineage analyses, cell ablation, and cell transplantation to study development of the cranial placodes and ganglia , the lateral line system, and axonal transport in zebrafish.