Current research: axon regeneration in the central nervous system with functional recovery; special topics in human neuropsychology and perception.

The discovery and publication of the “two visual systems” (1967, 1969) set the stage for what followed. After the early work with adult brain lesions, I pursued studies of brain damage early in life and found reasons why the functional effects of lesions in young animals were so different from those in adults: Axonal connections became altered in various ways. The implication is clear: Such abnormalities must occur in humans with early brain damage, as in cerebral palsy, some forms of schizophrenia, and some cases of mental retardation. Much of this work was published in the ‘70s (1973-1979). In 1981, the first paper on CNS axon regeneration was published, and this work has continued, using both neonate and adult animals, in collaboration with former students. The optic tract of the newborn hamster can regenerate after it is completely severed, but only up to the age of 3 days when there is a drastic reduction in regrowth; this was found to be caused by a downregulation of bcl-2 in the retinal ganglion cells (Chen et al. 1997); the regrowth of some axons continues but soon this is curtailed by an increasingly unfriendly tissue environment. Recently, we have found that a self-assembling peptide solution, discovered at MIT by T. Holmes and S. Zhang, will form a nanofiber mesh in the CNS wound site which serves as an effective bridge for axon growth (Ellis-Behnke et al. 2006a). This material also stops bleeding rapidly, without coagulation, not only in brain but in many other tissues (Ellis-Behnke et al. 2006b).

Additional research interests: Human perception and the phenomenon of central visual persistence (a kind of photographic short-term memory); neuropsychological and neurological effects of hypoglycemia.

Ellis-Behnke RG, Liang YX, You SW, Tay DKC, Zhang S, So KF., Schneider GE (2006) Nano neuro knitting: Peptide nanofiber scaffold for brain repair and axon regeneration with functional return of vision. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA , 103, 5054-5059.

Ellis-Behnke RG, Liang YX, Tay DKC, Kau PWF, Schneider GE, Zhang S, Wu W, So KF (2006) Nano hemostat solution: immediate hemostasis at the nanoscale. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine 2 , 207-215 (Available online at www.sciencedirect.com )

Schneider GE, Ellis-Behnke RG, Liang YX, Kau PWF, Tay DKC, So KF (2006) Behavioral testing and preliminary analysis of the hamster visual system. Nature Protocols 1 (4), 1898-1905.

Montie EW, Schneider GE, Ketten DR, Marino L, Touhey KE and Hahn ME (2007) Neuroanatomy of the subadult and fetal brain of the Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) from in situ magnetic resonance images. The Anatomical Record 290: 1459-1479.

Montie EW, Schneider G, Ketten DR, Marino L, Touhey KE and Hahn ME (2008) Volumetric neuroimaging of the Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus
acutus) brain from in situ magnetic resonance images. The Anatomical Record (in
press)