Ernesto Bongarzone

Professor

College of Medicine at Chicago - Basic Sciences
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology

Research Interests

Our lab has a long-standing interest in the neurobiology of myelination. Myelin is the sheath of apposed membranes that wraps and electrically insulates axons of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Numerous conditions including multiple sclerosis, genetic leukodystrophies, neurodegenerative pathologies, aging and intoxications increase myelin vulnerability, leading to disease, which remains largely incurable. The long-term goal of my research program is to translate pathogenic mechanisms of disease into rationalized therapies to cure demyelination. In particular, my laboratory is interested on:
1) Synergic therapies for genetic leukodystrophies. Demyelinating lysosomal storage orphan diseases are currently very difficult to treat. Early therapeutic studies performed on mouse models indicated the relevance that the disease phenotype exerts on the outcome of a therapy. We use mutant mice with neurological phenotypes resembling human leukodystrophies to test combinatorial cell, gene and small molecule-based therapies
2) Cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating remyelination in disease. The demonstration of de novo generation of neural cells (neurogliogenesis) in the adult brain and the presence of adult oligodendrocyte progenitors throughout the CNS provide a unique possibility to study the in vivo behavior and responses of these cells to disease and to identify molecular targets for therapy.

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