Research Interests

The core question that drives our research program is – How is axon growth regulated during development and regeneration in mammals? Communication in the nervous system is achieved via long cables called axons which connect neurons in the brain with the rest of the body. Intact axons are critical for proper nervous system function. When injured, young neurons are remarkably good at regeneration and repair. In contrast, adult neurons fail to regenerate resulting in permanent irreversible nervous system damage. What molecular pathways drive the observed loss of regenerative capacity across development? What regulatory mechanisms modulate developmental axon growth? Does successful CNS regeneration in adult neurons require a faithful recapitulation of developmental mechanisms? Are there development independent pathways that co-ordinate repair? These are some of the questions we are currently tackling. To get at these questions, we use a combinatorial approach which includes Bioinformatics, Functional Genomics (Single-cell RNA-Seq, ATAC-Seq, Hi-C, ChIP-Seq), in vitro assays of growth, in vivo mouse models of injury and behavioral assessments.

Selected Publications

Venkatesh,I*., Mehra, V., Wang, Z., Simpson, M. T., Eastwood, E.,Chakraborty, A., Beine, Z., Gross, D., Cabahug, M., Olson, G and Blackmore, M. G.* (2021) Co-occupancy analysis reveals novel transcriptional synergies for axon growth. Nature Communications, 12, 2555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22828-3. (* Co-corresponding authors)

Wang, Z., Mehra, V., Simpson, M. T., Maunze, B., Chakraborty, A., Holan, L., Eastwood, E., Blackmore, M. G.,* and Venkatesh, I.* (2018) KLF6 and STAT3 co-occupy regulatory DNA and functionally synergize to promote axon growth in CNS neurons. Sci. Rep. 8, 12565 * Co-corresponding authors

Venkatesh, I.*, Mehra, V., Wang, Z., Califf, B., and Blackmore, M. G. (2018) Developmental chromatin restriction of pro-growth gene networks acts as an epigenetic barrier to axon regeneration in cortical neurons. Dev. Neurobiol. 10.1002/dneu.22605 *Corresponding author

Venkatesh, I., and Blackmore, M. G. (2017) Selecting optimal combinations of transcription factors to promote axon regeneration: Why mechanisms matter. Neurosci. Lett. 652, 64–73

Venkatesh, I*., Simpson, M. T., Coley, D. M., and Blackmore, M. G. (2016) Epigenetic profiling reveals a developmental decrease in promoter accessibility during cortical maturation in vivo. Neuroepigenetics. 10.1016/j.nepig.2016.10.002 *Corresponding author