The Keenan Laboratory
Faculty Thomas Keenan
Thomas Keenan
Assistant Scientist, Biomedical Engineering, Neurology
tkeenan@wisc.edu
Organ System/Disease Focus
Neurodevelopment
Aligned Research Focus
Engineered cell culture environments, basic stem cell science
Research Description
Morphogen gradients comprise an essential mechanism of fate determination in the developing nervous system. They are established during precise developmental windows, with highly-regulated expression patterns and levels that are critical for engendering their full biological effects. Recapitulating in vitro the morphogen gradients observed in vivo would be a powerful way of capitalizing on established developmental mechanisms to generate relevant cell types from human stem cells and to identify new drug targets for treating neurological disorders.
We are currently exploring the role of FGF-2 during early corticogenesis. FGF-2 is expressed predominantly in the ventricular zone forming a gradient across the developing cerebral cortex. FGF-2 has effects on both cell proliferation and neurogenesis and may play a significant role in establishing early cortical architecture. In our studies we use microtechnology and microfluidic tools to engineer the requisite cell culture environments. Microtechnology offers the ability to control the cell culture environment at the cellular scale and facilitates characterization of cell responses with high levels of precision and quantitation.