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November 2000
Throughout the past decades, scientists have
developed an ever more intricate understanding of the mechanisms of
cellular destruction involved in injury and disease. Intervention in
these processes could halt degeneration, but does not restore the
functions compromised by cell death. Further, injury to the central
nervous system by trauma is largely irreversible. That the adult
brain maintains a population of dividing cells opens the possibility
of inducing these cells to repair damage caused by stroke,
neurodegenerative diseases, or injury, or to supplement function in
disorders of neurochemistry.
In 1998, two of the neuroscientists featured in
ISIHighlyCited.com published reports of neurogenesis in regions of
the adult primate and human brains, overturning decades of
"no-new-neurons" dogma, and spurring on the work of
researchers interested in a wide variety of fields in
neuropathology, developmental biology, cellular and molecular
neuroscience, and clinical neurology. Along the way, they have
attracted the attention of the popular press for the exciting
prospect for new therapies, but also for the implications of their
discoveries in the debate over stem cell research.
Visit each of these scientists’ profiles in
ISIHighlyCited.com to get a more complete view of their careers and
their publications. If you have access to the ISI Web of Science,
use the link from their bibliography to trace the influence of these
key papers on the most current literature, including the work of
many of our other featured researchers.
Dr.
Bruce McEwen of The
Rockefeller Institute has spent more than 30 years studying cellular
and molecular neuroendocrinology and the neurobiology of stress. His
approximately 700 publications have explored
many aspects of the brain’s plasticity, including regulation of
neuronal atrophy and neuroprotection by hormone action.
In 1998, McEwen and
collaborators from the Department of Psychology at Princeton, and
the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, reported neurogenesis
in the dentate gyrus of adult marmoset monkeys, and that the rate of
cellular proliferation was decreased by stress. At the time of this
writing, this report has been cited in 150 subsequent studies,
ranging from induced neuronal differentiation of bone marrow-derived
stem cells, to new insights into the effects of major depressive
disorder on the structure and function of the brain.
View Dr. McEwen's profile and other publications in ISIHighlyCited.com : 
The
Salk Institute’s Dr. Fred Gage investigates the cells of the brain
and central nervous system, with early work on normal and disordered
neuronal activity, neuronal grafting, and
molecular and functional studies of the hippocampus and dentate
gyrus. His year 1998 paper demonstrating the presence, in the adult
human brain, of actively dividing, neuronal stem cells has caused
great excitement among researchers interested in a wide variety of
fields in neuropathology. That the adult brain maintains a
population of dividing cells opens the possibility of inducing these
cells to repair damage caused by stroke, neurodegenerative diseases,
or injury to the brain and/or spinal cord. There have been 250 recent
articles that have
referenced this work, firmly establishing it as one of the more
resonant studies of recent years.
View Dr. Gage's profile
and other publications in ISIHighlyCited.com :
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