Eric J. Huang MD, PhD

Dr. Huang received his medical degree at the National Taiwan University and his Ph.D. from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York. While in graduate school, he worked under the guidance of Dr. Peter Besmer and was involved in the cloning, mapping, and characterizing mouse c-kit ligand, also known as the stem cell factor or Steel factor. After a residency in pathology, he did postdoctoral training with Dr. Louis Reichardt at the University of California San Francisco where he was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship for Physicians.

Dr. Huang started his lab in 2000 and his research has been supported by the National Parkinson Foundation, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Dept of Veterans Affairs, and National Institutes of Health. Dr. Huang is also the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Independent Scientist Award from NINDS, and the Weil Award from the American Association of Neuropathologists. The goal of Dr. Huang's research is to better understand the mechanisms by which neurons integrate a myriad of signaling pathways transmitted by neurotrophic receptors.

One major focus of the research is to characterize the transcriptional machinery that, in response to the stimulations from trophic factors, controls neurogenesis, neuronal survival, and differentiation. This work not only has direct implications on improving the environmental cues for cell-based replacement therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, but it also has the potential of being the target of drug designs that can enhance neuronal survival.