NIHBC 35 - PNRC I BG RM 2B-203
35 CONVENT DR
BETHESDA MD 20892
Dr. Heavner received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from the University of North Carolina, where she worked in the lab of Dr. Larysa Pevny investigating transcriptional regulation of retinal development using mouse genetics as a primary tool. Enamored with gene regulation and neural development, Dr. Heavner then joined the labs of Dr. Susan McConnell and Dr. Gill Bejerano at Stanford University to study cortical development from a genome-wide perspective. While at Stanford, Dr. Heavner received one of the inaugural Stanford Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards, which allowed her to explore neuroscience, writing, and teaching more broadly. Increasingly interested in synaptic plasticity, Dr. Heavner then traveled up to Seattle Children's Research Institute to work in the lab of Dr. Stephen E. P. Smith, where she studied the roles of synaptic scaffolding proteins in neural activity and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Dr. Heavner has come full circle, back to her neural progenitor roots, to help lead the lab of Dr. John Ngai (Molecular Neurobiology Section), investigating signaling pathways important for neural regeneration during homeostasis and after injury.
The long-term goal of our lab is to identify the molecular pathways regulating the construction or repair of neural circuits. Our primary model is the the mouse peripheral olfactory system, which is useful for studying adult stem cell-mediated regeneration, because it retains the ability to generate new neurons throughout the lifespan of the animal. We use a combination of approaches, including single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses, mouse genetics, viral transduction, immunohistochemistry, multiplexed RNA in situ hybridization, primary tissue culture, and confocal microscopy, to predict and test determinants of neural regeneration from a variety of angles.
Dr. John Ngai PhD, PI
Dr. Jonathan Lovas PhD, postdoctoral fellow
Brittany Brooks, GPP student
Divya Kunda, IRTA postbaccalaureate fellow
Research Articles:
Matsushima, D.*, Heavner, W*. and Pevny, L. H. (2011). Combinatorial regulation of optic cup progenitor cell fate by SOX2 and PAX6. Development 138, 443-54. *Equal Contributions
Leone, D.P., Heavner, W., Ferenczi, E.A., Dobreva, G., Huguenard, J., Grosschedl, R., and McConnell, S.K. (2014). The chromatin remodeling protein Satb2 regulates the differentiation of subcerebral projection neurons in the developing cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu156
Heavner, W., Andoniadou, C. and Pevny, L.H. (2014). Establishment of the neurogenic boundary of the mouse retina requires cooperation of SOX2 and WNT signaling. Neural Development 9:27
Notwell, J.H., Chung, T., Heavner, W., and Bejerano, G (2015). A family of transposable elements coopted into developmental enhancers in the mouse neocortex. Nature Communications 6:6644
Leone, D.P., Panagiotakos, G., Heavner, W., Joshi, P., Zhao, Y., Westphal, H., and McConnell, S.K. (2016) Compensatory actions of Ldb Adaptor Proteins During Corticospinal Motor Neuron Differentiation. Cerebral Cortex DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw003
Notwell, J.H., Heavner, W., Darbandi, S.F., Katzman, S., McKenna, W.L., Ortiz-Londono, C.F., Tastad, D., Eckler, M.J., Rubenstein, J.L.R., McConnell, S.K., Chen, B., Bejerano, G. (2016) Tbr1 regulates autism risk genes in the developing neocortex. Genome Research 26:1013-1022.
Heavner, W., Ji, S., Notwell, J.H., Dyer, E.S., Tseng, A.M., Birgmeier, J., Yoo, B., Bejerano, G., McConnell, S.K. (2020) Transcription factor expression defines subclasses of developing projection neurons highly similar to single-cell RNAseq subtypes. PNAS DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2008013117
Heavner, W., Speed, H., Lautz, J., Gniffke, E., Immendorf, K., Welsh, J.P., Baertsch, N.A., Smith, S.E.P. (2021) Remodeling of the Homer-Shank interactome mediates homeostatic plasticity. Science Signaling 14:681 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.abd7325
Reviews:
Heavner, W. and Pevny, L.H. (2012). Eye Development and Retinogenesis. Cold Spring Harbor Perspect Biol DOI: 10/1101 / cshperspect.a008391
Heavner, W. and Smith, S.E.P. (2020) Resolving the synaptic versus developmental dichotomy of autism risk genes. Trends in Neurosci 43, 227-241