Awards and Grants:
- Missouri Spinal Cord Injury and Disease Program
- WUSTL Distinguished Investigator Award
- Biogen
Core Usage & WUSTL Affiliations:
- The Hope Center for Neurological Disorders
- WU Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI)
- Viral Vectors Core
- Genome Technology Access Center (GTAC)
Mechanisms of Axon Regeneration
Research in the Cavalli Lab is focused on understanding the signals that a neuron receives when its axon is injured and how this leads to regeneration, in the case of the peripheral nervous system but not in the central nervous system. This has led to two main research areas:
1) What are the molecules and molecular tracks that relay an injury signal from an axon to the nucleus? 2) How is a pro-regenerative signaling cascade initiated in the nucleus once an injury signal is received?
Ultimately, Dr. Cavalli hopes to uncover the means by which peripheral nerves regenerate and apply this knowledge to treatments for central nervous system injuries and diseases.
Selected Publications
- Oh YM, Mahar M, Ewan E, Leahy K, Zhao G, Cavalli V. (2018). The epigenetic regulator UHRF1 inactivates REST and growth suppressor gene expression via DNA methylation to promote axon regeneration. PNAS in press.
- Mahar M, Cavalli V. (2018). Intrinsic mechanisms of neuronal axon regeneration. Nat Rev Neurosci 19:323–337.
- Cho Y, Shin JE, Ewan EE, Oh YM, Pita-Thomas W, Cavalli V. (2015). Activating injury-responsive genes with hypoxia enhances axon regeneration through neuronal HIF-1α. Neuron 18:720-34.