Neuroscience and Neurochemistry

Biography

Alexander Gow, Ph.D. joined Wayne State University in December 2000 as an Assistant Professor with joint appointments in the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and the Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, School of Medicine. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure (Pediatrics) in 2004. Dr. Gow received his postdoctoral training from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, from 1990 to 1994 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1995. Dr. Gow originally defined the molecular mechanism underlying pathogenesis in the leukodystrophy, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, in 1994 and continues to work on this disease to design drug-based treatments to ameliorate the disease symptoms. He was also first to demonstrate the function of the claudin family of tight junction proteins in forming the functional barrier of polarized epithelia in the testis, cochlea and in central nervous system myelin. Dr. Gow has been a regular member of Study Section B at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society since 2006, has been an ad hoc member of several NIH, NIDCD Study Sections and a Member of Council for the American Society of Neurochemistry from 2002 - 2007. He has been funded continuously by the Multiple Sclerosis Society since 1996 and currently has two MS research grants and is a Co-Investigator on an MS Center of Excellence grant. He has two NIH grants from NINDS/NIA and NIDCD.

Research Interest

Protein misfolding diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, myelinogenesis, demyelination, multiple sclerosis, myelin and saltatory conduction, myelin function and affective disorders, intercellular junctions, tight junctions and auditory function, tight junctions and male infertility, transcriptional regulation of claudin genes.