Download Dr. Kevin Mitchell Short CV 1992-1997

Dr. Kevin Mitchell
Short CV
1992-1997
1998-2002
Since 2002
PhD with Corey Goodman in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University
of California at Berkeley
Postdoc with Marc Tessier-Lavigne and William Skarnes at the
University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University
Faculty in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics and Institute of Neuroscience
at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The genetics of brain wiring:
My lab has been working to elucidate the genetic program that specifies wiring of the mammalian brain and
understand how mutations in genes involved in this process can lead to psychiatric or neurological disorders. We
have particular interests in the mechanisms of cortical connectivity, in neurodevelopmental mouse models for
psychiatric disorders and in synaesthesia. We have identified molecules involved in axon guidance or cell migration
in the developing mouse brain, particularly in the hippocampus, thalamus and cortex, and are analysing the
functions of a number of different gene families in these processes. We have been focusing in particular on
members of the semaphorin and plexin gene families and using analyses of mutant mice, along with in vitro cellular
and biochemical assays to understand their roles in cell migration and axon guidance in various parts of the brain.
We have also been studying the superfamily of leucine-rich repeat molecules, many of which are involved in
specifying neuronal connectivity. We have been using various mouse mutants as potential models to understand
how neurodevelopmental insults can lead to functional and behavioural phenotypes of relevance to the
neuropathology and psychopathology observed in human psychiatric disorders.
Synaesthesia (meaning “mixing of the senses”) is a heritable condition of involuntary sensory cross-activation
whereby particular stimuli elicit secondary sensory-perceptual or experiences or cognitive associations. These may
include, for example, experiencing colours in response to sounds, words, music, letters, smells and many other
stimuli, tasting words, personification of numbers, spatial locations for numbers, dates, letters, calendar units,
feeling sounds, perceiving shapes in response to taste and many other forms. We have been investigating
synaesthesia as a model to understand how cortical areas become specialized during development and how their
patterns of connectivity are established. Our studies of synaesthesia have involved documenting the familiality of
various forms and characterising the phenotype using psychophysics, electroencephalography and structural and
functional magnetic resonance imaging. These studies have revealed additional manifestations of the condition of
synaesthesia, beyond the synaesthetic experience itself and widespread differences in brain structure. We plan
further studies to elucidate the genetic basis of this intriguing condition.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
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Rünker A.E., O'Tuathaigh, C., Dunleavy, M., Morris, D.W., Little, G.E., Corvin, A.P., Gill, M., Henshall, D.C.,
Waddington, J.L. and Mitchell, K.J. (2011). Mutation of Semaphorin-6A disrupts limbic and cortical
connectivity and models neurodevelopmental psychopathology. PLoS One 6(11):e26488
Janssen BJ, Robinson RA, Pérez-Brangulí F, Bell CH, Mitchell KJ, Siebold C, Jones EY. (2010) Structural basis
of semaphorin-plexin signalling. Nature 467:1118-22.
Little GE, Lopez-Bendito G, Runker AE, Garcia N, Pinon MC, Chedotal A, Molnar Z, Mitchell KJ. (2009)
Specificity and plasticity of thalamocortical connections in Sema6A mutant mice. PLoS Biol. Apr 28;7(4):e98.
Barnett KJ, Finucane C, Asher JE, Bargary G, Corvin AP, Newell FN, Mitchell KJ. (2008) Familial patterns and
the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia. Cognition. 106(2): 871-93. Epub 2007 Jun 27.
Dolan J, Walshe K, Alsbury S, Hokamp K, O'Keeffe S, Okafuji T, Miller SF, Tear G, Mitchell KJ. (2007) The
extracellular leucine-rich repeat superfamily; a comparative survey and analysis of evolutionary
relationships and expression patterns. BMC Genomics. 14;8:320.
ADDRESS
Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin
[email protected]
Lab website: http://www.gen.tcd.ie/mitchell/
Wiring the Brain blog: http://www.wiringthebrain.com/
Twitter: @WiringtheBrain