Jonathon Schofield

Program: Neurosciences

Current advisor: Matthew D. Wood, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2016

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
Role of guidance cues in peripheral nerve regeneration across acellular nerve allograft

Peripheral nerve injuries that result in gaps between the injured nerve ends pose major challenges for clinical repair. Autograft, or healthy, ‘expendable’ nerve taken from the patient, has served as the gold standard for bridging these gaps. However, their use involves additional surgical time and donor site morbidity. Alternatives are increasingly being favored, particularly acellular nerve allografts (ANAs). ANAs are extracellular matrix scaffolds derived from processed cadaver nerves and have demonstrated efficacy in facilitating axonal regeneration across short gaps (<3 cm). Despite their promise, the regenerative capacity of ANAs wanes for lengths exceeding 3 cm, revealing a gap in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this limit. My research utilizes a well-established rodent model in which comparative analyses of nerve gap repair using short (2 cm) versus long (4 cm) ANAs have been conducted. Our lab's findings reveal a microenvironment within the longer grafts characterized by aberrant vascularization, fewer SCs, and shorter axon lengths relative to the 2 cm grafts. My thesis work to date has shown that these alterations are accompanied by significant changes in the expression of neurodevelopmental guidance cue ligands and receptors essential for vascular patterning (Sema3E), SC migration (netrin-1), and axonal co-localization and elongation with SCs (EphB2). The remainder of my thesis work aims to further interrogate the functionality of guidance cue signaling in the context of nerve regeneration via ANAs. Graduate publications
Liebendorfer A, Finnan MJ, Schofield JB, Pinni SL, Acevedo-Cintrón JA, Schellhardt L, Snyder-Warwick AK, Mackinnon SE, Wood MD. 2023 Loss of Gata1 decreased eosinophils, macrophages, and type 2 cytokines in regenerating nerve and delayed axon regeneration after a segmental nerve injury. Exp Neurol, 362():114327. PMCID: