Patrick McNutt PhD
Research Scientist at Department of Defense, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense
Functional Neurogenesis in a Dish: Deriving Human and Mouse Networked Neuron Cultures for Therapeutic Screening and Regenerative Therapies

After earning a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Princeton University in 2001, Patrick served nine years as an active duty Army officer to fulfill an undergraduate ROTC obligation. He then accepted a Principal Investigator job at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense in 2010 and currently runs a 14-person lab focused on characterizing pathophysiological host responses to diverse biological and chemical warfare agents, with the overall objective of identifying novel targets for therapeutic development. His lab has pioneered the use of networked cultures of stem cell-derived neurons as physiologically relevant cell-based models for neurotoxicological screening and is actively engaged in evaluating the therapeutic potential of reprogramming reactive glia into neurons in vivo as a potential therapeutic treatment for central nervous system injury. Current funded work includes developing intracellular therapeutics for the botulinum neurotoxins; determining brain circuits involved in acute and recurrent nerve agent seizures; characterizing the effects of status epilepticus on adult neurogenesis; measuring acute synaptic responses during nerve agent-induced seizures; and characterizing corneal injury mechanisms caused by ocular exposure to sulfur mustard. In addition to his responsibilities as a civilian research scientistI, Patrick is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and was recently selected to command a reserve Medical Battalion, starting April 2016.