Joshua R. Sanes

Dr. Joshua Sanes studies the formation of synapses, the connections that transmit information between nerve cells. Changes in synapses underlie learning and memory, and synaptic defects underlie diverse neurological and psychiatric diseases. The Sanes lab is therefore interested in the mechanisms that regulate the formation of these structures. They began by working on the neuromuscular synapse, because it was experimentally more accessible than synapses in the brain. Using this preparation, they identified key molecules that promote synapse formation. More recently, they have extended this work to the central nervous system, and also pioneered new ways to image synapses as they form.

Dr. Sanes received a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Harvard. Following postdoctoral work at UCSF, he joined the faculty of Washington University, where he became Professor in 1989. He returned to Harvard in 2004 as Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and founding Director of the Center for Brain Science. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, recipient of the Alden Spencer Award of Columbia University, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is on the editorial board of several scientific journals, including Cell, Journal of Cell Biology, Neural Development and Neuron. He has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors and the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NIH), the Council of the Society for Neuroscience, and advisory panels for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association, the Klingestein Neuroscience Fund, the Searle Scholars Fund, the Stowers Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.