Assistant Professor
1993 Ph.D. Washington University School of Medicine

We study the molecular basis of areal parcellation in the developing cerebral cortex. Surprisingly, while the importance of morphologically distinct, connectionally unique, and functionally dedicated cortical areas has been recognized for many years, the developmental bases of their genesis remain unclear. While both autonomous genetic programs as well as environmental factors can affect this process, the extent to which intrinsic versus extrinsic influences drive the formation of particular cortical areas remains an open question.

Publications:
Donoghue, M.J., Morris-Valero, R., Johnson, Y.J., Merlie, J.P., and Sanes, J.R. 1992.Mammalian muscle cells bear a cell-autonomous, heritable memory of their rostrocaudal position.Cell 69, 67-77.

Donoghue, M.J. and Sanes, J.R. 1994. All muscles are not created equal. Trends in Genetics 10, 396-401.

Donoghue, M.J., Lewis, R.M., Merlie, J.P. and Sanes, J.R. 1996.The Eph ligand AL-1 is expressed by rostral muscles and inhibits outgrowth from caudal neurons.Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 8, 185-198.

Donoghue, M.J. and Rakic, P. 1999.Molecular evidence for the early specification of presumptive functional domains in the embryonic primate cerebral cortex. J. Neurosci. 19, 5967-5979.

Donoghue, M.J. and Rakic, P. 1999.Molecular gradients and compartments in the embryonic primate cerebral cortex.Cerebral Cortex 9, 586-600.

Sestan, N., Rakic, P., and Donoghue, M.J. 2001. Independent parcellation of the embryonic visual cortex and thalamus revealed by combinatorial Eph/ephrin gene expression. Current Biology 11, 39-43.

http://info.med.yale.edu/neurobio/mjd/mjd.html