Professor Jean M. Hébert
Jean M.
Hébert, Ph.D. is
Associate Professor, Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and
Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, both at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine.
Jean has two main focuses: first, understanding how a simple
sheet of neuroepithelial cells early in embryogenesis develops into the
adult neocortex, the part of our brains that we use for our highest
cognitive and perceptual functions; and second, devising methods for
regenerating the principle neurons of the adult neocortex when they are
lost. For both interests, he uses primarily molecular genetic techniques
to manipulate the expression of regulatory genes in neural precursor
cells in mice.
More specifically, his two main goals are: 1) to understand how one
class of genes, those that encode components of the FGF signaling
pathway, regulate the behavior of neural precursor cells during
development and in the adult forebrain; and 2) to establish paradigms
for regenerating widely dispersed glutamatergic neurons in the adult
neocortex using engineered neural precursor cells.
Jean is author of Replacing Aging.
(Also
available in Spanish.)
His papers include
Transcription factor AP-2 is expressed in neural crest cell lineages
during mouse embryogenesis,
Targeting of cre to the Foxg1 (BF-1) Locus Mediates
loxP Recombination in the Telencephalon and
Other Developing Head Structures,
FGFR1 Is Required for the Development
of the Auditory Sensory Epithelium,
Dose-dependent functions of Fgf8 in regulating telencephalic
patterning centers,
BMP Signaling Is Required Locally
to Pattern the Dorsal Telencephalic Midline, and
mRNA localization studies suggest that murine FGF-5 plays a role in
gastrulation.
Jean earned his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of
California, San Francisco.
Read his LinkedIn profile.