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Joseph Dougherty, PhD
Current
Position
Assistant Professor
Education and Training
B.A., B.S. Psychology, Truman State University, 1999
Ph.D. Neuroscience, University of California Los Angeles, 2005.
Postdoctoral Training, Nathaniel Heintz, Rockefeller University, 2005-2010
Major Awards
K99/R00: Serotonin, Autism, and investigating cell types for CNS disorders.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship
Route 28 Summit in Neurobiology Award for Excellence
National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (declined in favor of HHMI)
Areas of Research Interests
My research focuses on trying to understand the genetic and cellular underpinnings of psychiatric disorders, primarily autism. We combine data from human genetics studies with high througphput cell-type specific gene expression profiling to identify genes and circuits that may contribute to mental disorders, which we then test with mouse models. We are particularly focused on neuromodulatory systems and glia.
Key Publications
Dougherty JD, Zhang J, Feng H, Gong S, Heintz N (2012). Mouse transgenesis in a single locus with independent regulation for multiple fluorophores. PLoS One. 7(7): e40511. Full Article ->
Tien AC, Tsai HH, Molofsky AV, McMahon M, Foo LC, Kaul A, Dougherty JD, Heintz N, Gutmann DH, Barres BA, Rowitch DH (2012 Jul). Regulated temporal-spatial astrocyte precursor cell proliferation involves BRAF signalling in mammalian spinal cord. Development. 139(14): 2477-87. Full Article ->
Fomchenko EI, Dougherty JD, Helmy KY, Katz AM, Pietras A, Brennan C, Huse JT, Milosevic A, Holland EC (2011). Recruited cells can become transformed and overtake PDGF-induced murine gliomas in vivo during tumor progression. PLoS One. 6(7): e20605. Full Article ->
Dougherty JD, Schmidt EF, Nakajima M, Heintz N (2010 Jul). Analytical approaches to RNA profiling data for the identification of genes enriched in specific cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 38(13): 4218-30. Full Article ->
Doyle JP, Dougherty JD, Heiman M, Schmidt EF, Stevens TR, Ma G, Bupp S, Shrestha P, Shah RD, Doughty ML, Gong S, Greengard P, Heintz N (2008 Nov 14). Application of a translational profiling approach for the comparative analysis of CNS cell types. Cell. 135(4): 749-62. Full Article ->
Nakano I, Dougherty JD, Kim K, Klement I, Geschwind DH, Kornblum HI (2007 Aug). Phosphoserine phosphatase is expressed in the neural stem cell niche and regulates neural stem and progenitor cell proliferation. Stem Cells. 25(8): 1975-84. Full Article ->
Funded Research Projects
NINDS(PI) Serotonin, Autism, and investigating cell types for CNS disorders
Mallinkrodt Foundation New Investigator Award(PI):Induction of specific neural cell types from human fibroblasts
Hope Center Pilot Award(Co-PI): Isolating Cell-Type Specific miRNAs