Alex Kolodkin
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PhD, molecular biology, University of Oregon
Alex Kolodkin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Spouse |
Maria Rodriguez (m. 1986) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BA, 1980, Wesleyan University PhD, molecular biology, University of Oregon |
| Thesis | Double strand breaks can initiate meiotic recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (1987) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
Alex Leo Kolodkin is an American neuroscientist. He is the Charles J. Homcy and Simeon G. Margolis Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
He is known for his work on neuronal guidance cues and their receptors, the discovery of semaphorins, and unveiling guidance cue roles in neural circuit assembly and function in insects and mammals. Kolodkin’s work provides a framework for understanding how a limited number of guidance molecules are capable of sculpting, maintaining, and refining complex neural circuitry.
Kolodkin was born to Milton and Barbara Kolodkin.[1] He graduated from Mount Greylock Regional School in 1975 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in 1980.[2] Upon graduating, he received the Griffen Prize for excellence in religious studies.[3] After marrying Maria Rodriguez in 1986, Kolodkin graduated from the University of Oregon with a doctor of philosophy degree in molecular biology.[2] As a postdoctoral fellow, Kolodkin discovered and cloned the first semaphorin gene, revealing a family of proteins that include members that provide directional guidance to extending axons and dendrites[4]
