Dr. Margaret Fahnestock

Membership Type: Associate Member

Supervisorship Status: Available.

Studies in Dr. Fahnestock’s lab require a knowledge of molecular and cell biology and a significant amount of time to learn the techniques involved. She accepts students for research projects, usually in their first or second year of undergrad, or volunteers if they are willing to stay for at least a year or more. She also accept graduate students and postdocs. Foreign students must usually have external funding.

If you are interested, please connect with Dr. Margaret Fahnestock.

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Bio

Dr. Margaret Fahnestock trained in Biochemistry at UC Berkeley, Cell Biology at Baylor and Neurobiology at Stanford. During the past 30 years at the Stanford Research Institute and McMaster University, she has led a continuously funded research program focused on the molecular regulation of neurotrophic factors and their contribution to neurological disorders. She is an active member of the Canadian Autism Research Training Program, as autism is a major focus of her research.

Current Focus Areas

Project: The contribution of the BDNF/TrkB signalling pathway to idiopathic autism.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a small but powerful protein that regulates synaptic connections in the brain. Dr. Fahnestock’s lab has shown that BDNF and its receptor, TrkB, are abnormally processed in postmortem brain samples from subjects with idiopathic autism. This causes a reduction in signalling that affects synapses. Dr. Fahnestock’s team is working on two studies to determine what causes this abnormal processing: (1) A study in mice showing that reactivating BDNF/TrkB signalling with a drug (a TrkB agonist) eliminates their Autistic-like behaviour; and (2) A study in cell culture to investigate the proteins involved in abnormal BDNF/TrkB processing.
Project: BDNF levels in blood samples of Autistic subjects.
Dr. Fahnestock and colleagues measure BDNF levels in blood samples of Autistic subjects as a proxy for brain BDNF levels. In one study, Dr. Fahnestock’s team showed that non-invasive brain stimulation (tDCS or rTMS) significantly improved behavioural scores. There was a trend towards reduced serum BDNF levels in those subjects, supporting further studies on the use of BDNF as a biomarker to measure the effectiveness of interventions in autism. In another study, Dr. Fahnestock and colleagues demonstrated that certain medications taken by Autistic subjects can change the levels of BDNF and a related protein, IGF-1, in blood, compared to those subjects not on medication.

Career Highlights

Organized an International Symposium on Autism Research using Rodent Models (Nov. 23, 2020). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium was held online. Dr. Fahnestock’s presentation was titled: “BDNF and the mTOR pathway in the valproic acid model of autism”.

Research areas: