Research / Clinical Summary

Mark Ellisman, PhD Professor, Neurosciences Tumor Growth, Invasion & Metastasis Program Contact by Email Visit the Website

Dr. Mark Ellisman is Professor of Neurosciences and Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego. After earning a Ph.D. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado, he joined UCSD in 1977.

Dr. Ellisman's research uses multi-scale imaging of the nervous system to explore how higher order structures such as cellular networks are assembled out of finer building blocks such as dendritic and axonal architectures. Ellisman’s research projects include many aspects of cellular, molecular, and developmental neurobiology: mechanisms of intracellular transport in neurons; interactions between axons and myelinating glia; aging processes in the central nervous system; cellular interactions during nervous system regeneration; molecular differentiation of excitable membranes, ion channels, neurotransmitter receptors and transmembrane ion pumps; structural changes in axons and synapses associated with changes in electrophysiological properties.

In 1988, Ellisman established the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at UCSD to achieve greater understanding of the structure and function of the nervous system by developing three-dimensional light and electron microscopy methods. NCMIR is a national research resource for computer-aided imaging, high voltage and intermediate voltage electron microscopy, serial section reconstruction, and functional correlation with subcellular structures in 3D and 4D, and remote access to acquire and process images of biological specimens.

Since 1996, he also serves as the founding director of UCSD’s Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS) and in 2001, initiated the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN), a NIH initiative that provides an extensible infrastructure for promoting collaborative investigations among biomedical centers distributed around the country.

Dr. Ellisman is recognized nationally and internationally for helping to pioneer the development of new technologies that enhance neurobiological and clinical research. For example, Ellisman is currently developing automated ultra-wide field microscope techniques to digitally characterize pathological changes in normal and tumor-associated glial cells across millimeter- to nanometer-sized structures. Recognizing that little is understood about the properties of glial cells elicited by cancer-promoting lesions, the Ellisman laboratory is collaborating with NCI funded Mouse Models of Human Cancers Consortium (MMHCC) researchers to develop and apply high-throughput procedures to acquire wide-field neuroanatomical characterizations of neurofibromas and astrocytomas in pre-clinical mouse models.

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