Rosalind Segal, Ph.D.

Administrative Accomplishments

I have had several administrative roles both at Harvard and beyond. I have been the associate director and then the director of the Harvard PhD program in neuroscience. In this role we were able to restructure the curriculum in a way that highlighted the interconnection and interdependence of various approaches to neuroscience- including cellular physiology, systems neuroscience, development and molecular approaches. This emphasis on unifying the disparate scientists who study neuroscience from many different angles is a key feature of the Society for Neuroscience. As the director, I was responsible for obtaining external funding for the program, and for working with program administrators to responsibly manage the budget.

I continued my dedication to training in my current role as the Harvard Medical School Dean for graduate education. As dean, I oversee nine Masters programs and six PhD programs, with over 1000 students. I am responsible for a large budget, and work with multiple programs with sometimes competing financial and administrative needs. Thus I have become much more knowledgeable about finances, and we have responsibly managed the external and internal funding, enhanced funding for our students, and successfully competed for external grants. I have learned more about the student and postdoc unions, and about financial issues faced by trainees. Since I have been Dean during the pandemic, I have also had to deal with challenges that are completely unpredictable and find a way to continue our work. 

In addition to these, and other roles in education, I have been Co-Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Dana Farber, I have served on the Executive Committee for Research, and I co-chaired the Appointments and Promotions committee. These roles have provided a great deal of training in dealing with faculty issues, and with financial concerns of new and ongoing laboratories. 

Outside of Harvard, I have chaired two Gordon Research Conferences (Neurotrophic Factors and Developmental Neurobiology), where I had to raise funds to support the conferences, and trainees. I have been an external reviewer for biology and neurobiology programs and departments at institutions across the United States and Canada, and so I have learned about the diversity of funding mechanisms and training approaches in these two countries. 

Degree, Institute, Year Earned

Research Areas

• Cancer Neuroscience
• Developmental Neurobiology
• Cancer Biology

Current Position(s) at Your Current Institution

• Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School. 
• Ed Benz Chair of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 
• Dean for Graduate Education, Harvard Medical School. 
• Co-Director of Harvard Integrated Life Sciences, Harvard University. 

Memberships

Service Positions

Editorial Boards:

Other Service Positions:

Science Biography

My research is at the intersection of developmental neuroscience and cancer biology. For many years, a major focus of our work was to understand how neurotrophin signaling depends on the location of stimulation. Our studies demonstrated that dynein-dependent transport of signaling endosomes and the subsequent activation of specialized signaling pathways and transcriptional changes enable long distance retrograde signaling from the nerve terminal to the neuronal cell body. These long range signals regulate survival and function of sensory neurons, and so are critical for tactile sensations. We identified transcripts that are locally translated in axons and are regulated by neurotrophin stimulation of axon endings; these include proteins such as a Bcl2 family member that promote axonal survival and prevent sensory neuropathy.  

Our work on neuronal development and cancer biology has addressed growth factors that enable the development of the nervous system such as Sonic Hedgehog, the chemokine CXCL12 and neurotrophic factors. These pathways are frequently disrupted in brain cancers, particularly childhood cancers, as well as in other neurologic disorders. Our studies of pediatric brain tumors have highlighted potential treatments for low grade astrocytomas and for medulloblastoma, and highlighted the importance of the local microenvironment for tumor growth. This work has helped develop new therapies, as growth factor signaling pathways are druggable and so have direct clinical implications.  

Our work on developmental neuroscience and on cancer biology have now come together in the new field of cancer neuroscience. A major focus of the laboratory is to understand the neurotoxicity of cancer chemotherapies, particularly chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. This is a devastating side effect that impacts over half of patients treated for cancer. There is currently no effective therapy, other than discontinuing the cancer treatment. Our studies have identified the role of Bcl2 family members, the pro-degenerative component Sarm1, and Calcium signaling in this process. These studies bring together my expertise in neurodevelopmental pathways, axonal survival, local translation and cancer biology. In addition to new insights into development and disease, I would also like to highlight the students that have trained in our laboratory: undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  

The full CV for this candidate can be found within the ballot.