Maureen Condic, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy B.A., University of Chicago; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley and University of Minnesota. Email: Office Phone: 801-585-3482

Dr. Condic is interested in the control of neurite outgrowth and axon guidance. Embryonic neurons are unusual in that they are able to extend neurites quite efficiently in extracellular environments that do not support the migration of other motile cell types.

Recent work in the laboratory has shown that embryonic sensory neurons are able to compensate for inhibitory or weakly growth-promoting substrata by adjusting their expression of receptors for growth-promoting matrix molecules (receptors of the integrin class). Cell-surface integrin levels appear to be modulated either through a posttranslational mechanism of targeted endocytosis or through activation of a receptor-based second messenger system. Regulated integrin expression in response to the extracellular environment may be required for neurons (and possibly for other invasive cell types) to migrate into diverse tissues.

We are currently investigating the contribution of integrin regulation to the development and migration of both sensory neurons and their immediate embryonic precursors, the neural crest. An exciting suggestion from this work is that the regenerative failure of adult CNS neurons may be in part due to changes in integrin expression associated with the maturation of neurons to an adult phenotype. Recent work from our laboratory has demonstrated that the regeneration of adult neurons in culture can be greatly improved by transgenic integrin expression. We are currently expanding these findings to more sophisticated in vitro and whole animal models of adult regeneration.

Search Pubmed for Maureen Condic's lab publications

Selected Publications

Guan, W. and Condic, M.L. (2002). Characterization of Netrin-1, Neogenin and UNC-5 expression during chick dorsal root ganglion development. (submitted)

Strachan, L. and Condic, M.L. (2002). Neural crest motility and integrin regulation are distinct in cranial and trunk populations. (in revision)

Condic, M.L. (2002). Neural Development: Axon regeneration derailed by dendrites. Current Biology 12(13), R455-R457.

Condic, M.L., Lemons, M.L. (2002). Extracellular matrix in spinal cord regeneration: getting beyond attraction and inhibition. NeuroReport. 13(3), A37-A48.

Guan, W. Puthenveedu, M. and Condic, M.L. (2002). Sensory neuron subtypes have unique substratum preference and receptor gene expression prior to target innervation. J. Neurosci.(in press).

Condic, M.L. (2001). Adult neuronal regeneration induced by transgenic integrin expression. J. Neurosci. 21:4782-4788.

Condic, M. L., D. M. Snow, and P. C. Letourneau. (1999) Embryonic neurons adapt to the inhibitory proteoglycan aggrecan by increasing integrin expression. J. Neurosci. 19:10036-10043.

Condic, M. L. and P. C. Letourneau. (1997) Ligand-induced changes in integrin expression regulate neuronal adhesion and neurite outgrowth. Nature 389:852-856.