Marie T. Filbin, Ph.D.

 

 

Distinguished Professor

Department of Biological Sciences

 

Education

B.Sc. 1978, University of Bath, England

Ph.D. 1981, University of Bath, England

Postdoc. 1982-1984, University of Maryland Medical School

Postdoc. 1984-1986, Johns Hopkins Medical School

    

Marie T. Filbin is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Specialized Neuroscience Research Program at Hunter College, City University of New York in Manhattan. She received both her BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Bath, UK. During a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Gihan Tennekoon at Johns Hopkins Medical School she began working on myelin formation at the molecular level. She showed that the myelin protein Po was a homophilic adhesion molecule and then went on to characterize the adhesive interactions of this molecule in detail and to correlate those findings with structure function studies with mutated forms of Po found in human diseases. In 1990 she joined the Biology Department at Hunter and in 1994 made the observation that another myelin protein, MAG, was a potent inhibitor of axonal regeneration. Since then she has continued to investigate the role of MAG and myelin in general in preventing axonal regeneration after injury. More recently she devised molecular approaches to overcoming these inhibitors. Currently, she is testing these findings in animal models of spinal cord injury, as well as continuing to identify novel molecular targets for potential therapeutic intervention.

Select Publications

Lab News

Professor Marie T. Filbin Named Co-Recipient of 2001 Ameritec Prize for Paralysis Research, Shares Prize with University Colleague from Berkeley--

 

                 October 2001 – The Ameritec Foundation has selected Professor Marie T. Filbin of Hunter College of the City University of New York as co-recipient of the 2001 Ameritec Prize for significant accomplishment toward a cure for paralysis.  Director of the college's Specialized Neuroscience Research program, Professor Filbin—the first female winner—shares the prize with Professor Mu-Ming Poo of the University of California at Berkeley.

 

                 Their research, conducted independently, relates to the role played by a molecule called cyclic AMP in affecting the regeneration of nerve axons after injury.  Both scientists will receive the prize at the Neurotrauma Symposium in San Diego on November 10, 2001.

 

                  Professors Filbin and Poo are the eighth winners of the Ameritec Prize, established in 1987 specifically to recognize scientists whose research advances the search towards a cure for paralysis.  Winners of the prize, funded by the nonprofit Ameritec Foundation in Covino, California, are chosen by an advisory board of prominent medical researchers.  Previous winners include Prof. Martin Schwab of Switzerland; Prof. Yves Barde of France; Prof. Fred Gage, the Salk Institute; Prof. Corey Goodman, formerly of the University of California at Berkeley; Prof. Marc Terrier-Lavigne, formerly of the University of California at San Francisco; Professor Thomas Jessel, Columbia University; and Dr. Albert Aquayo, McGill University.

 

                Professor Filbin's research in neurobiology has received national and international recognition; her findings have been published in Neuron and other prestigious magazines. The work in the Filbin lab that led to the Ameritec Prize began when the Hunter researchers identified a molecule in the brain and spinal cord that potentially inhibited nerve re-growth. This molecule, called MAG, is found in the myelin membrane, the membrane that ensheaths and insulates nerves. After injury, when both myelin and nerves are damaged, MAG and other inhibitors of regeneration become exposed to the nerves that are trying to re-grow and stops them.

 

                 "The rush was now on to identify ways to overcome not only MAG but all the inhibitors of regeneration in myelin," recalls Professor Filbin. Her lab accomplished this by showing that neurotrophins—agents essential for the development and survival of neurons—blocked the inhibition by MAG and myelin in general.  Particularly important was their finding that neurotrophins had this effect by activating a molecule called cyclic AMP (cAMP). The members of the team then showed that if the levels of cAMP in neurons was increased, this was sufficient to overcome the inhibitors in myelin and to encourage nerve regeneration in vivo.

 

                "Marie Filbin has made a groundbreaking discovery," says Bob Yant, administrator of the Ameritec Prize. "We're quite excited about this finding, which potentially opens a new line of investigation and could ultimately lead to novel therapies for those with spinal cord injuries."

 

                Professor Filbin was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Bath, United Kingdom in 1982, and over the next two years, conducted post-doctoral training in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Maryland at Baltimore. From 1984-1986 she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Neurology Department, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, advancing to Research Associate in the same department, where she served from 1986-1990. In the Department of Biological Sciences at Hunter College, the largest college in the City University of New York, Professor Filbin has held the titles of Associate Professor (1990-1995), Professor (1995-1997), Marie Hesselbach Chair in Biology (1997-1998), and Distinguished Professor (1998-present). 

 

Dr. Marie T. Filbin Receives Prestigious Javits Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health.

 

The award comes from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Established by Congress in 1983, Javits Investigator Award (in honor of senator Jacob Javits) to provide uninterrupted funding for recipients demonstrating "exceptional scientific excellence and productivity, proposals of the highest scientific merit, and are judged likely to remain on the cutting edge of science for the next seven years."

 

The Javits Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by the NINDS in support of biomedical research on the brain and is awarded to only the most outstanding neuroscientists in the country. The award is made in two segments – an initial four-year award with an additional three years of support after internal administrative review.

 

Dr. Filbin has found a potential mechanism to block the inhibitory effects of the molecule MAG (myelin-associated glycoprotein) and all other inhibitors present in the myelin sheath.  It is believed that those inhibitors prevent the spinal cord from regenerating after injury. Her findings have been reported in issues of Neuron and Journal of Neuroscience.