Mr. Malone’s research focused on identifying factors that
regulate the survival of adult neural stem cells. The neural
stem cells that exist in the adult brain are capable of turning
into all the different types of cells found in the brain. As a
result, these stem cells are thought to be one way in which the
brain can repair itself when an injury such as a stroke occurs.
One of the major problems with adult neural stem cells is that
they often die when they reach a site of brain injury. Mr.
Malone discovered that a specific protein, known as Mcl-1, is a
crucial survival factor for adult neural stem cells. Mcl-1 had
previously been shown to enhance the survival of blood and liver
stem cells, but it was not known whether it had a role in adult
neural stem cells. The graduate student found that when the
concentration of Mcl-1 in neural stem cells was decreased, the
cells died. Likewise, when the amount of Mcl-1 in the neural
stem cells was increased, the numbers that survive was enhanced.
“Collectively, my resul