Oswald Steward

Oswald Steward

Professor

Reeve-Irvine Research Center

Anatomy & Neurobiology

School of Medicine

University of California, Irvine, USA

About the Speaker:

Oswald Steward is the Director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California at Irvine, and is a Professor in the Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology and Neurobiology & Behavior, and Neurosurgery. Dr. Steward is also the Senior Associate Dean for Research at UC Irvine. Named for actor Christopher Reeve and Joan Irvine Smith, the Reeve-Irvine Research Center was established to study injuries to and diseases of the spinal cord and develop strategies to promote repair and regeneration of nerve cells.

Prior to July, 1999, Steward held the position of Harrison Foundation Professor of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia, and was the Founding Chair of the Department of Neuroscience in the University of Virginia School of Medicine, holding that position from 1986-1999.

Steward’s research program explores how neurons establish, maintain, and modify their synaptic connections. One component of my research evaluates cellular and molecular processes that contribute to repair after CNS (especially spinal cord) injury. A description of this component of my research may be found on the website for the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. The second component addresses the mechanism underlying gene expression at synapses.

Information storage in the nervous system is thought to be mediated by changes in the strength of individual synapses. These changes, in turn, are determined by adjusting the structure and/or molecular composition of the synapse through a process that requires the expression of particular gene products. But how gene products are targeted to individual synapses, especially as individual synapses are being modified, still remains a mystery.

Key Research Areas:

Spinal cord injury, regeneration, sprouting, epilepsy, excitotoxicity, cellular mechanisms of plasticity

Selected Recent Publications:

1. Metcalfe M, Steward, O (2023) PTEN deletion in spinal pathways via retrograde transduction with AAV-RG enhances forelimb motor recovery after cervical spinal cord injury; Sex differences and late-onset pathophysiologies. Exp Neurol 370:114551.

2. Lin XL, Wang XP, Zhang YJ, Chu GP, Liang JW, Zhang B, Lu YS, Steward O, Luo J (2023) Synergistic effect of chemogenetic activation of corticospinal motoneurons and physical exercise in promoting functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Exp Neurol 370:114549.

3. Yonan JM, Steward O (2023) Vector-mediated PTEN deletion in the adult dentate gyrus initiates new growth of granule cell bodies and dendrites and expansion of mossy fiber terminal fields that continues for months. Neurobiol Dis 184:106190.

4. Smith GM, Steward O, Bradbury EJ (2022) Gene modification after spinal cord injury: Mechanisms and therapeutics. Exp Neurol 356:114156.

5. Metcalfe M, Yee KM, Luo J, Martin-Thompson JH, Gandhi SP, Steward O (2022) Harnessing rAAV-retro for gene manipulations in multiple pathways that are interrupted after spinal cord injury. Exp Neurol 350:113965.