E-mail:
Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
B.S., Brigham Young University, 1994
M.S., University of Rochester, 1996
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1999
Postdoc, SUNY, Stony Brook, 1999-2002
Role of neuronal-glial signaling in brain development, function, injury and disease
Our long range goals are to elucidate the processes that underlie the molecular assembly of electrogenic compartments of axons and the role that myelinating cells (oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells) play in this process in health and in disease. Our lab explores the molecular basis of signaling between glial cells and axons in the brain and spinal cord under a variety of conditions including the normal process of myelination that occurs during development, demyelination and remyelination in disorders such as multiple sclerosis and the responses of axons and their myelinating cells to injuries of various types, including trauma. Our laboratory is working to understand the underlying mechanisms that regulate the clustering of ion channels at the sites that initiate and propagate action potentials: the axon initial segment and nodes of Ranvier. Many nervous system diseases and injuries result in the disruption of these domains. For example, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury (TBI and SCI), as well as demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis result in widespread axonal injury. It is now appreciated that a host of molecular events occurs that ultimately results in the disruption of axons and their excitable domains. One particularly sensitive component of axons is the spectrin/ankyrin based cytoskeleton. Spectrins and ankyrins are highly enriched at axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier and are essential for maintaining both the high-density cluster of ion channels. Our research team is working to uncover the molecular mechanisms regulating formation and maintenance of ion channel clusters in axons since any therapeutic strategy aimed at nervous system repair and/or regeneration will require the re-establishment of these excitable domains.
Selected Publications
Spiegel I, Adamsky K, Eshed Y, Milo R, Sabanay H, Sarig-Nadir O, Horresh I, Scherer SS, Rasband MN, Peles E (2007) A central role for Necl4 (SynCAM4) in Schwann cell-axon interaction and myelination. Nature Neuroscience 10:861-869.
Hedstrom KL, Xu X, Ogawa Y, Frischknecht R, Seidenbecher CI, Shrager P, Rasband MN (2007) Neurofascin assembles a specialized extracellular matrix at the axon initial segment. Journal of Cell Biology 178:875-886.
Ogawa Y, Horresh I, Trimmer JS, Bredt DS, Peles E, Rasband MN (2008) Postsynaptic density-93 clusters Kv1 channels at axon initial segments independently of Caspr2. Journal of Neuroscience 28:5731-5739.
Ogawa Y, Oses-Prieto J, Kim MY, Horresh I, Peles E, Burlingame AL, Trimmer JS, Meijer D, Rasband MN (2010) ADAM22, a Kv1 channel-interacting protein, recruits membrane-associated guanylate kinases to juxtaparanodes of myelinated axons. Journal of Neuroscience 30:1038-1048.
Chang KJ, Susuki K, Dours-Zimmermann MT, Zimmermann DR, Rasband MN (2010) Oligodendrocyte myelin glycoprotein does not influence node of ranvier structure or assembly. Journal of Neuroscience 30:14476-14481.
Susuki K, Raphael AR, Ogawa Y, Stankewich MC, Peles E, Talbot WS, Rasband MN (2011) Schwann cell spectrins modulate peripheral nerve myelination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108:8009-8014.
Buffington SA, Rasband MN (2011) The axon initial segment in nervous system disease and injury. European Journal of Neuroscience 34:1609-1619.
Rasband MN (2011) Composition, assembly, and maintenance of excitable membrane domains in myelinated axons. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology 22:178-184.
Buffington SA, Sobotzik JM, Schultz C, Rasband MN (2012) IΚBα is not required for axon initial segment assembly. Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience 50:1-9.
Galiano MR, Jha S, Ho TS, Zhang C, Ogawa Y, Chang KJ, Stankewich MC, Mohler PJ, Rasband MN (2012) A distal axonal cytoskeleton forms an intra-axonal boundary that controls axon initial segment assembly. Cell 149:1125-1139.
Susuki K, Yuki N, Schafer DP, Hirata K, Zhang G, Funakoshi K, Rasband MN (2012) Dysfunction of nodes of Ranvier: a mechanism for anti-ganglioside antibody-mediated neuropathies. Experimental Neurology 233:534-542.
Contact Information
Matthew N. Rasband, Ph.D.
Department of Neuroscience
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza,
Houston, Texas 77030, U.S.A.
Tel: (713) 798-4494
Fax: (713) 798-3946
E-mail: