Gerry Shaw Gerry Shaw studies the functional significance of neurofilaments in neurons, neuronal differentiation and disease and signal transduction proteins and their involvement in cancer and developmental defects. Professor of Neuroscience Investigator, McKnight Brain Institute Training Postdoc - Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany Ph.D. Zoology, MRC Cell Biophysics Unit, King's College London B.S. Department of Zoology, University College London Contact phone: 352.294-0037 office: MBI L2-183 lab: MBI L2-166 email:shaw@mbi.ufl.edu Shaw lab site My basic interest is in how the nervous system functions, and at different times I have used molecular biological, protein chemical, immunological and computational approaches to this end. At present I am devoting most of my time to studies of biomarkers of neural injury, focusing in on the major cytoskeletal and enzymatic proteins of the brain. These proteins become released from damaged and diseased neurons in large amounts and can be detected with appropriate enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in blood and cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). Since these proteins are not normally found in blood or CSF, their detection can be used to diagnose a particular disease state and determine the seriousness and state of progression of the disease. Measurement of the levels of these proteins can also be used to ascertain the effectiveness of drugs and other neuroprotective therapies. We have recently shown that one of the major subunits of neurofilaments can be detected in the blood of animals suffering from brain and spinal cord injuries, but is not present in the blood of uninjured animals. Work in progress shows that the blood and CSF of patients with neurodegenerative diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Multiple Sclerosis also contain diagnostic levels of this protein. The same protein can be detected in the blood and CSF of patients suffering from stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, in each case giving a measure of the seriousness of the injury. We are currently, in collaboration with my startup off campus company EnCor Biotechnology Inc., developing ELISAs allow the detection of other potential biomarkers. Recent Publications Hyperphosphorylated neurofilament NF-H is a serum biomarker of axonal injury. Shaw, G., Yang, C., Ellis, R., Anderson, K., Mickle, J. P., Scheff, S., Pike, B., Anderson D. K. and Howland, D. Biochem Biophys Res Comm. 336:1268-1277 (2005). Concurrent RNA and protein extraction from the same experimental sample using a commercially available column-based RNA preparation kit. Morse, S., Shaw, G. and Larner, S. F.B iotechniques 40:54-55 (2006). Actin-binding proteins Coronin-1a and IBA-1 are effective microglial markers for use in immunohistochemistry. Ahmed, Z., Shaw, G., Sharma, V., Yang, C., E McGowan, E. and Dickson DW. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 55:687-700 (2007). Comparison of two ELISA methods for measuring levels of the phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain. Petzold, A. and Shaw, G. J. Immunol. Mets, 319:34-40 (2007).