The Samanta lab is investigating the molecular underpinnings of signaling pathways responsible for the proliferation, migration and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells in the adult brain, with the ultimate goal of transforming this knowledge for promoting remyelination in neurodegenerative diseases and in the aging brain.
We use several techniques to study myelin regeneration from neural stem cells:
1. Mouse models of diseases: To study remyelination, we induce demyelination in the brain with Lysolecithin injection, Cuprizone diet or use genetically modified mice responsive to Diphtheria toxin.
2. In vivo mouse genetics: We label specific populations of neural stem cells in the brain using genetically inducible fate-mapping techniques like Cre-Lox recombination. We also use genetically modified mice to activate or inhibit specific signaling pathways in neural stem cells by overexpressing or ablating different components of the pathway.
3. In vitro neural stem cell culture: We harvest neural stem cells from the ganglionic eminences in embryonic brains and subventricular zone in adult mouse brains and grow them as suspension cultures in a dish. In addition, we manipulate the signaling pathways pharmacologically or genetically to study proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in vitro.
Lab News!
April 2023:
Congratulations Amelia!
Amelia was accepted into the SENS Research Foundation’s summer scholar program. She will be working in Dr. Khalid Shah’s lab at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute this summer.
March 2023:
Congratulations Dan!
Dan received a job offer from Additional Ventures.
April 2022:
Thanks to everyone’s hard work, the Samanta lab received an R01 and an R03 grant from NIH/NINDS.
Well Done, Team Myelin!!!!
November 2021:
Congratulations Abby!!!
Abigail Johnson received the 2021 Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience.
October 2021:
Congratulations Dan!!!
Daniel Radecki won the best blitz talk travel award at the SCRMC Fall Conference.
May 2021:
Congratulations Sai!!!
Sai Krishna Bhamidipati successfully defended his masters thesis entitled ‘Inhibition of Gli1 prevents the depletion of subgranular zone neural stem cells’.
May 2021:
Congratulations Atharva!!!
Atharva Dhamale received the Summer Honors senior thesis award from College of Letters & Sciences.
April 2021:
Congratulations Abby!!!
Abigail Johnson received the Hilldale Undergraduate Research fellowship.
April 2021:
Congratulations Sai!!!
Sai Krishna Bhamidipati received an honorable mention for the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence by a Graduate Student at the SVM Phi-Zeta Research Day for his talk titled –
“Inhibition of Gli1 rescues the apoptosis of subgranular zone neural stem cells in a novel transgenic mouse model”
March 2021:
Congratulations Dan!
Daniel Radecki received the Postdoc Excellence in Service award from the UW-Madison Postdoctoral Association.
December 2020:
Double Congratulations to Dan!!!
Daniel Radecki received the 2020 Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience.
The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) Board of Directors has appointed Daniel Z. Radecki, Ph.D., as co-chair elect of the Meetings Committee. Dan will join Anne Wyllie, Ph.D., in planning the 2022 Annual Conference.
September 2020:
Congratulations Elizabeth and Sai!!!
Elizabeth Clawson and Sai Krishna Bhamidipati won the Cool Science PPE contest at the SCRMC Fall conference! Check out the image gallery in the ‘Trail of Art’ page for the winning image.
September 2020:
Congratulations Sai!
Sai Krishna Bhamidipati is featured in the 500 Queer Scientists web-site.
June 2020:
Congratulations Elizabeth!
Elizabeth Clawson won an early bird Top50 Design award from Biorender for her graphical illustration of Peripheral Nerve Repair. Check out the image gallery in the ‘Trail of Art’ page for her poster.
May 2020:
Congratulations Sai!
Sai Krishna Bhamidipati’s poem was selected by the Madison Poet Laureate, Angie Trudell Vasquez, in the annual Madison Metro bus lines poetry contest. The theme for this year’s contest was “How riding the bus is good for us and the planet.”
Sai’s poem:
Student or traveler, younger or older;
all cozying up, standing shoulder to shoulder.
This is a microcosm, and you’re welcome for sure.
Because no matter how full, there’s always place for one more.
April 2020:
Congratulations Dan!
Daniel Radecki received the Sanofi travel award presented by the American Society for Neurochemistry (ASN) to support an outstanding, translationally focused post-doctoral fellow’s participation at the ASN Annual Meeting. The award provides $1,000 for travel expenses to attend the ASN annual meeting.
February 2020:
Congratulations Dan!
Daniel Radecki received the 2020 Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center post-doctoral training award. Check out the winners in the SCRMC-Spring-Newsletter-2020
November 2019:
Daniel Radecki’s cool science image is featured in SCRMC-Fall-Newsletter-2019
September 2019:
Congratulations Dan!
Daniel Radecki won the travel award for best Postdoc Poster at the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center (SCRMC) Fall 2019 Conference.
September 2019:
Check out the SCRMC Pick of the Month for WSCR SURF 2019 students with their mentors. Evangeline Hu was mentored by Daniel Radecki.
April 2019:
Congratulations Heather!
Heather Messling received the Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship!
April 2019:
Congratulations Dan!
Daniel Radecki won the UW Cool Science Image Contest 2019. Check out the image of ‘Embryonic Mouse Brain’ in the ‘Trail of Art’ image gallery.
March 2019:
Jay Samanta was interviewed for the New Faculty Focus in On-Call-Spring-2019 magazine.