Dr Nancy Nichols

Senior Lecturer - Department of Physiology

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Background

Nancy Nichols was awarded a PhD from the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she received a Jeane B. Kempner Fellowship to begin her postdoctoral research in Australia. She was a Senior Research Officer at the former Medical Research Centre, Prince Henry's Hospital in Melbourne before returning to the states as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There she received a prestigious Brookdale National Fellowship from the Brookdale Foundation in New York and was funded by national competitive grants on stress, aging and Alzheimer's disease.  In 1995, she returned to Australia to the Department of Physiology at Monash University, to set up a Molecular Biology laboratory for studies on brain aging. She is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Brookdale Institute on Aging, New York.

Research Interests

New neurons can be produced throughout the lifespan and in response to neurodegeneration. Many factors, including adrenal steroids and growth factors, regulate turnover of neurons in adulthood. The Nichols’ lab is interested in identifying the role of genes that mediate the effects of glucocorticoids on rates of neuron turnover or replacement. Previously we cloned transforming growth factor-β1 as a glucocorticoid response from rat hippocampus, and showed that it has both anti-apoptotic and pro-neurogenic effects. In collaboration with Dr Ann Turnley, Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, we are investigating another glucocorticoid regulated gene that is a known tumour suppressor. Recently, we showed that it is highly expressed and under regulation by glucocorticoids in proliferating neural stem/progenitor cells in neurogenic regions of adult brain. Currently, we are examining its function using neural stem/progenitor cell cultures and gene transfection methods. Knowing how these hormones regulate neuronal turnover is important for understanding their influence on brain repair and replacement of neurons that die in response to brain injury and disease.

Recent Publications

Choy, K.-H.C., De Visser, Y., Nichols, N.R. and Van Den Buuse, M. (2008) Combined neonatal stress and young-adult glucocorticoid stimulation in rats reduces BDNF expression in hippocampus: effects on learning and memory. Hippocampus 18(7) 655-667.

Malaterre, J., Mantamadiotis, T., Dworkin, S., Lightowler, S., Yang, Q., Ransome, M.I., Turnley, A.M., Nichols, N.R., Emambokus, N.R., Frampton, J. and Ramsay, R.G. (2008) c-Myb is required for neural progenitor cell proliferation and maintenance of the neural stem cell niche in adult brain. Stem Cells. 26(1):173-81.

Scott, H.J., Stebbing, M.J., Walters, C.E., McLenachan, S., Ransome, M.I., Nichols, N.R. and Turnley, A.M. (2006) Differential effects of SOCS2 on neuronal differentiation and morphology. Brain Res. 1067(1):138-45.

Nichols, N.R. (2006) Stress theory of aging. In The Encyclopedia of Aging (4^th Ed), Richard Schulz, Linda Noelker, Kenneth Rockwood, and Richard Sprott, (Eds.) New York: Springer Publishing Co., USA, 720 pp.

Nichols, N.R., Agolley, D, Zieba, M. and Bye, N. (2005) Glucocorticoid regulation of glial responses during hippocampal neurodegeneration and regeneration. Brain Res. Rev. 48(2):287-301.

Nichols NR. (2003) Ndrg2, a novel gene regulated by glucocorticoids and antidepressants, is highly expressed in astrocytes.  Ann NY Acad Sci, 1007:349-356.