Mary Teena Joy, Ph.D.

I was awarded a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London (UCL) where I trained with Dr. Patrick Anderson. My work focused on understanding molecular mechanisms that can be targeted for axonal regeneration in the injured spinal cord. Towards the end of my PhD, I became interested in projections upstream of the spinal cord, in the brain, where connections are more plastic. To further my understanding in reparative mechanisms in the brain, I undertook postdoctoral training with Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael at UCLA, where I studied molecular mechanisms that underlie plasticity during learning and memory as targets for stroke. In addition to molecular targets, I became interested in how neural circuits interact during movement, a domain that is compromised in stroke patients. For further training, I was awarded a visiting fellowship at Janelia, HHMI, where I worked with Dr. Adam Hantman, where I used a unique imaging platform to perform large-scale recordings and targeting of circuit activity across multiple regions in the brain to determine how motor information is encoded in the normal brain. In my lab, we use a combination of techniques to study how circuits reorganize after a stroke, how these reorganizational processes contribute to changes in motor function, the molecular mechanisms that enhance plasticity in these circuits, and therapeutic targets that can be clinically translated.