Moses Chao
neuroscience researcher
Moses V. Chao (born May 16, 1952) is a neuroscientist and university professor at NYU Langone Health Medical Center. He studies the mechanisms of neuronal growth factor and teaches courses in cell biology, neuroscience, and physiology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was President of the Society for Neuroscience in 2012.
Early life and education
In 1972, Chao earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry at Pomona College in Claremont, California. In 1980, he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at University of California, Los Angeles. He researched chromatin structure at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA. After earning his doctorate, Chao worked as a research fellow at Columbia University from 1980 to 1983, where he carried out his postdoctoral research with molecular biologist Richard Axel.
Research
Since 2019, Chao has been a lead investigator at New York University investigating the mechanisms behind specificity of neuronal growth factor (NGF), with specific emphasis on neuronal growth, differentiation, and signaling. A landmark discovery of Chao's lab was the identification of genes responsible for encoding the receptors of NGF. The lab is currently investigating the mechanisms of trophic factors used to alter plasticity in synapses. A significant area of focus for Chao and his research associates are neurotrophins. Neutrophins act in the nervous system to assist cells in differentiation, as well as survival mechanisms and higher-order functions, including addiction, pain, neurodegenerative conditions, anxiety, and depression.
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This entry incorporates text from “Moses Chao” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.