BMS 202 - Anatomy and Physiology Lecture
BMS 202 - Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory
BMS 290 - Human Physiology
BMS 391 - Laboratory in Human Physiology 
BMS 427 - Neuroanatomy
BMS 428 - Neuroscience

Post-doctoral fellow, University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Neuroscience 
B.S. and B.A., University of Rochester, Neuroscience and English 

Where I came from: Before joining GVSU in 2008, I was a postdoc in Sean Morrison's lab at the U. of Michigan, and demonstrated that Rbpsuh, a transcriptional co-factor for Notch signaling pathway, was necessary for normal neural stem cell differentiation into glia in vivo. This work allowed me to integrate my expertise in protein chemistry during my PhD work (protein kinases and phosphoproteins) with cell signaling and neural cell biology.

Why GVSU is special: My lab’s research efforts have been shaped by the mission of my institution and what we love: training the next generation of scientists through excellent pedagogy in the classroom and pursuing pressing questions at the bench. My lab is staffed by undergraduate and masters level researchers (35% first generation college students; 85% of my students went on to attend graduate or professional school, all are employed in the biomedical field). Training affects the scope and speed of our progress, but the supportive environment here allows us to ask high-risk questions with an extended timeline. Further, we can leverage our discoveries to larger collaborative projects to solve important questions in biology (students love being a part of this scientific teamwork).

What we do: My lab works to determine how neural stem cells differentiate into specific cell types during development.

Neurodevelopment/Genetics/Stem Cell Biology

Our group uses the chicken and mouse embryo as model systems to determine how neural stem cell differentiation is influenced by intrinsic factors (such as gene expression) and extrinsic factors (such as factors secreted by other cells). The accessibility of the chick embryo to experimental manipulation allows us to screen for the effect of experimental manipulation on stem cell differentiation using quantitative PCR and anatomical approaches.  With this approach, undergraduate and master’s level students have determined that the basic helix loop helix protein Nato3 is sufficient to promote expression of markers for dopamine producing neurons.  The clinical significance of this finding is that dopamine neurons are the target of degeneration in the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease, so our current studies are focused on understanding the mechanism of this effect with the hope of informing therapeutic strategies towards this disease.  Additionally, our lab is using the same model system to analyze the effect of factors outside of the neural stem cell (cell-extrinsic factors) such as polyunsaturated fatty acids.  These factors have been shown to be important signaling components in development and can affect stem cell differentiation in culture, but have not been analyzed in the living embryo.

More details about the lab can be found at https://www.gvsu.edu/delanotaylorlab

My expertise in cell biology and protein chemistry are best illustrated in the following publications and patent filings:

Peterson, D., Jordan, S., Darcy, K., Elizabeth, K., Sarala, S., & DeLano-Taylor, M. (2019). The Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Gene Nato3 Drives Expression of Dopaminergic Neuron Transcription Factors in Neural Progenitors. Neuroscience, 2019 Nov; 421: 178-191 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.09.003

Lindstow, C., DeLano-Taylor, M., Kordower, J., & Brundin, P. Does Developmental Variability in the Number of Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Affect Individual Risk for Sporadic Parkinson’s Disease? Journal of Parkinson's Disease 2020 10(2): 405-11. DOI:10.3233/JPD-191877

Taylor MK, Yeager K, Morrison SJ., Physiological Notch signaling promotes gliogenesis in the developing peripheral and central nervous systems. Development 2007 Jul; 134(13):2435-47 https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.005520

Taylor MK, Straight J, Peterson D, Huisingh N, Doyle D., Nato3 mutant polypeptides and uses thereof. Patent No. US20180346530A1 (awarded Sept 9, 2021). https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180346530A1/en

Taylor MK, Uhler MD., The amino-terminal cyclic nucleotide binding site of the type II cGMP-dependent protein kinase is essential for full cyclic nucleotide dependent activation. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2000 Sep 8;275(36):28053-62