Meet Our Scientists

James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

Chair, NIH Stem Cell Task Force
Director, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

James F. Battey earned a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. Following residency training in pediatrics at Stanford he received postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Philip Leder. Dr. Battey came to NIH in 1983 as a Senior Staff Fellow and then Senior Investigator with NCI. In 1988 he moved to the NINDS as Chief of the Molecular Neuroscience Section and in 1992 returned to NCI to head the Molecular Structure Section of the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Battey was appointed Director of Intramural Research for NIDCD in 1995 and chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1996. He was appointed Director for NIDCD in 1998. Dr. Battey's laboratory focuses on the molecular genetic analysis of biologic responses mediated by mammalian bombesin-like peptides and their receptors.

G-protein Coupled Receptors' Section, NINDS
Trans-NIH Mouse Initiative

E-mail: batteyJ@nidcd.nih.gov

Ronald D.G. McKay, Ph.D.

Director, NIH Stem Cell Unit
Senior Investigator and Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Dr. McKay received a B.Sc. in 1971 and a Ph.D. in 1974 from University of Edinburgh, where he studied under the tutelage of Edwin Southern examining DNA organization and chromosome structure. He received postdoctoral training at University of Oxford working with Walter Bodner examining restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLPs). In 1978 he became a senior staff investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory concentrating on two areas: the interaction of SV40 T-antigen with the specific binding site at the viral origin of replication and the molecular organization of the nervous system. Joining the MIT faculty in 1984, Dr. McKay continued to examine different aspects of neuronal organization in the nervous system. In 1993 he came to NINDS as chief of the Laboratory of Molecular biology. His laboratory is studying stem cell differentiation.

E-mail: mckayr@ninds.nih.gov

Mahendra Rao, M.D., Ph.D.

Investigator Head
Stem Cell Biology Unit, National Institute on Aging

Dr. Mahendra S. Rao received his M.D. from Bombay University in India and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1991. After completing postdoctoral training with Dr. S. Landis and Dr. D. J. Anderson he joined the University of Utah as an Assistant Professor in 1994. He was promoted to an Associate Professor and awarded tenure in 1999. At Utah he began a new line of investigation which was to define the molecular events that underlie differentiation of the central and peripheral nervous system. In 1999 he was honored by the American Association of Anatomists as the C.J. Herrick Young Investigator and the University of Utah recognized his abilities by awarding him early tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Dr. Rao recently accepted a position as the Head of a newly established stem cell group in NIA’s Laboratory of Neurosciences.

E-mail: raomah@nia.nih.gov