Dr. Deborah Watson

Dr. Watson received her undergraduate honors degree in chemistry at Mills College in Oakland, CA. She completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology at Harvard University. Her thesis work, with Dr. Dennis Selkoe at the Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, investigated mechanisms of vascular amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer's disease. She completed postdoctoral training in CNS gene delivery with Dr. John Wolfe at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Watson's research activities focus on regional delivery of growth factors and other therapeutic agents in the injured brain, via viral vector-mediated gene transfer and transplantation of genetically engineered neural stem cells. Since 2003, Dr. Watson has been an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The laboratory seeks to define the molecular mechanisms that underlie neurotrophin neuroprotection of the hippocampus after TBI.  In addition, we are interested in defining the signals that recruit endogenous and transplanted neural stem cells towards areas of pathology in the CNS.  We create a variety of viral vectors for gene delivery directly into the CNS and via neural stem cell transplants.  In combination with MRI imaging of the transplanted stem cells in live animals, these molecular tools are used to track the location, fate and function of the stem cells.