Sally Temple is an American developmental

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. She is a co-founder and scientific director for The Neural Stem Cell Institute and is a professor of

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

and

Neuropharmacology Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect function in the nervous system, and the neural mechanisms through which they influence behavior. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioral and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmac ...

Albany Medical College Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, whi ...

Temple is also the principal investigator in her laboratory that focuses on neural stem cells and therapies for neurological-related disorders

Life

Temple received her B.A. from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. She then continued her PhD education at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and competed her postdoctoral fellowship at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Her focus at this time was on optic nerve development. Temple became a pioneer in the field of stem cell research when she discovered that the embryonic mammalian brain contained a rare stem-like cell. After this discovery, she focused on

neural stem cell Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing, multipotent cells that firstly generate the radial glial progenitor cells that generate the neurons and glia of the nervous system of all animals during embryonic development. Some neural progenitor ste ...

s and how they develop over time and produce progeny. She has since been labelled an innovator in the field of stem cells, specifically

s, which are potentially applicable in cell replacement therapy for ailments like

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

and neurodegeneration. She is the president and co-founder of StemCulture, LLC., a company created by scientists in order to create innovative products and promote scientific research. In 2010 she and John J. Nigro were recipients of the 2010 Citizen Laureate Awards. This award is meant to recognize leaders in the fields of business, industry, government, and academia. Previously, she was a fellow of the Alden March Bioethics Institute. Temple currently is the scientific director of th
Neural Stem Cell Institute
She also is a faculty member for

, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and

SUNY Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a Public university, public research university with campuses in Albany, New York, Albany, Rensselaer, New York, Rensselae ...

. Dr. Temple is married to Dr. Jeffrey Stern, a retinal surgeon, who is the other co-founder of the Regenerative Research Foundation and Neural Stem Cell Institute. She is a member of the Editorial Board for ''

Developmental Cell ''Developmental Cell'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of cell and developmental biology. The journal was established in 2001, and is edited by Julie Sollier. It published by Cell Press, an imprint of Elsevier, and its articles becomes open ...

''.

Research

Temple's current laboratory focuses primarily on neural stem cells and the development for therapies related to eye, brain, and spinal cord disorders. One of her major accomplishments in her field is the isolation and culturing of a progenitor cell line of

glia Glia, also called glial cells (gliocytes) or neuroglia, are non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. They maintain homeostasis, form myel ...

. This led to the discovery that the number of cell divisions the cell underwent was determined by internal counting mechanisms. This research also led to her indicating specific markers on progenitor cell lines and external signaling molecules that are involved in the maintenance of neural stem cells. Some of her other research has indicated that the limited success of embryonic stem cell transplants in neurological cases may be due to the introduction of cells at the wrong developmental stage. This may have a huge impact on neurological therapies using stem cells as a future of medicine. She has also provided evidence in her field that has shown that progenitor cells gradually lose the ability to divide. She established that the ''

Foxg1 Forkhead box protein G1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''FOXG1'' gene. Function This gene belongs to the forkhead family of transcription factors that is characterized by a distinct forkhead domain. The complete function of thi ...

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

is important in this, because a reduction in its expression results in a delay in this process. As president of StemCulture, LLC. she is currently working on a new study involving a new product, StemBeads FGF2. StemCulture, LLC. describe this product as a

growth factor A growth factor is a naturally occurring substance capable of stimulating cell proliferation, wound healing, and occasionally cellular differentiation. Usually it is a secreted protein or a steroid hormone. Growth factors are important for regul ...

supplement that is able to grow

FGF2 Fibroblast growth factor 2, also known as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and FGF-β, is a growth factor and signaling protein encoded by the ''FGF2'' gene. It binds to and exerts effects via specific fibroblast growth factor receptor ''(FG ...

dependent stem cell cultures in a more efficient way. She also recently identified an important human central nervous stem cell that may lead to important developments in retinal disease treatments. In 2015, she attended a RPI stem cell and bioengineering meeting and spoke about her retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) research. She discussed how her team has been furthering their research into culturing human retinal stem cells and the use of RPE cells in therapy for age-related

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

Patents

Temple has a large number of patents related to neural stem cells and for various methods for culture undifferentiated cells.

Awards

In 2003 Dr. Temple received the Jacob Javitz Merit Award from the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. She was then awarded the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

in 2008. This award in considered a no-strings attached grant intended to supplement the winner's potential for creativity. Dr. Temple was also the recipient of the 2010 Citizen Laureate Awards. This was awarded to her by The University at Albany Foundation for her research into treatments for both macular degeneration and

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Publications

* ''Spred1, a negative regulator of Ras-MAPK-ERK, is enriched in CNS germinal zones, dampens NSC proliferation, and maintains ventricular zone structure.'' Phoenix TN, Temple S. Genes Dev. 2010 Jan 1;24(1):45-56. * ''The timing of cortical neurogenesis is encoded within lineages of individual progenitor cells.'' Shen Q, Wang Y, Dimos JT, Fasano CA, Phoenix TN, Lemischka IR, Ivanova NB, Stifani S, Morrisey EE, Temple S. Nat Neurosci. 2006 Jun;9(6):743-51. Epub 2006 May 7. * ''LeX is expressed by principle progenitor cells in the embryonic nervous system, is secreted into their environment and binds Wnt-1.'' Capela A, Temple S. Dev Biol. 2006 Mar 15;291(2):300-13. Epub 2006 Feb 3. * ''Asymmetric distribution of EGFR receptor during mitosis generates diverse CNS progenitor cells.'' Sun Y, Goderie SK, Temple S. Neuron. 2005 Mar 24;45(6):873-86. * ''LeX/ssea-1 is expressed by adult mouse CNS stem cells, identifying them as nonependymal.'' Capela A, Temple S. Neuron. 2002 Aug 29;35(5):865-75.

References

External links

The Neural Stem Cell Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Sally Living people Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of University College London American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists American women scientists Columbia University alumni MacArthur Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women